


The Event Horizon

by HarmonizingSunsets



Category: Never Have I Ever (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Cuddling, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Family Issues, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Kissing, Long One Shot, Love Confessions, Musical References, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Palm Springs AU, Personal Growth, Rivals to Lovers, SO MUCH FLUFF, Time Loop, a bit of angst, pop culture references, rom com like situations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25696666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarmonizingSunsets/pseuds/HarmonizingSunsets
Summary: Devi gets stuck in a time loop, reliving the day of Mr. and Mrs. Gross' vow renewal over and over again. She thinks being stuck in proximity to Ben for eternity is a cruel twist of fate, but she finds herself falling for him more and more every time the day resets.A Palms Spring AU, set a week before Devi's sophomore year begins.
Relationships: Ben Gross & Devi Vishwakumar, Ben Gross/Devi Vishwakumar, Fabiola Torres & Devi Vishwakumar & Eleanor Wong
Comments: 27
Kudos: 94





	The Event Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on the film Palm Springs. For those who have seen the movie, you'll notice a few similarities. But I also took some creative liberties for the plot to make sense for Ben and Devi, and just for the fun of it. 
> 
> I also thought it would be interesting to see the story through the perspective of the person stuck in the time loop first. Ben was going to be Andy Samberg's character for obvious reasons, but I changed my mind and reversed it. 
> 
> Buckle up for a long one-shot. Also, forgive me for any scientific errors, I tried my best lol. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this fic! I always love reading your comments :)

Every day starts the same since Devi fell into that sandpit.

Devi wakes up in a hotel in Malibu, on a pile of blankets on the floor. She got in a fight with her mother the night before. Her hair’s fanned across her face, and the small of her back aches from the hardness of the ground.

She wishes she would’ve slept in a less precarious position on the last normal night of her life. But can you really blame her for not seeing something like this coming?

Sure, there’s been countless movies about time loops. There’s a time loop in _Groundhog Day_ where Bill Murray plays a jackass newscaster. But, he becomes a better person by playing the piano and getting into a snowball fight or something? To be honest, Devi’s not sure how he becomes a better person. She fell asleep halfway through that movie.

But that film is similar to what she’s currently experiencing. However, no matter how perfect she tries to make this day, it never ends.

When she falls asleep each night, the day resets to August 30th, the week before the start of her sophomore year. But, she’ll never get to go back to school and rebrand herself after a disastrous freshman year like she had wanted to.

She’s trapped. Tomorrow will be today, and today will always be the same as yesterday.

Her alarm that plays the song “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” goes off in her hotel room because Eleanor programmed it into her phone at a sleepover a few weeks before the time loop started. Devi slaps the screen until the song that she’s sick of hearing turns off. She’s learned that there’s no point in trying to change it. She’s forced to listen to a cowboy sing for eternity.

Her mom comes in the right on cue, flashing the lights on and off in the room.

“Devi, wake up,” Nalini says, clapping her hands near her daughter’s ear. “We paid to stay here, so we’re not missing the continental breakfast.”

Devi stuffs her face into her pillow. “Get me a muffin and some bacon. The milk’s gone bad, the chef burned the eggs, and the waffle iron never works.”

“Believe it or not, you don’t know everything,” Nalini huffs, crossing her arms. “I’m sure the food is perfectly fine.”

Devi snorts, knowing that the food is not perfectly fine. She’s had their poorly made breakfast too many times to count and knows what food to avoid by now.

Nalini suddenly yanks the covers off of her. Devi doesn’t even flinch, because she knew it was coming.

She could resist getting up, she’s been able to get out of going downstairs before. But Devi doesn’t feel like coming up with a lie about an upcoming earthquake or a scheme involving made-up names and costumes.

So, she gets up with a groan and goes to her suitcase filled with wrinkled clothes.

Devi decides on leggings and a blue blouse. Because she’s eternally in the last week of summer, she’ll never get to wear her cute sweaters again.

She combs the knots out of her hair quickly before following her mother downstairs to the kitchen at a considerable distance.

While Devi’s not that mad at her mother anymore, trying to speed up the forgiveness process is not a good idea. She’s tried it before, and it only leads to them fighting more. She’ll make up with her mom, where she always did, at the wedding reception.

That’s the most insane thing about all of this to Devi. She’s forced to relive a wedding that she shouldn’t be at in the first place!

Mr. and Mrs. Gross invited Devi and her mother to their vow renewal. But just because they were already married, it didn’t mean they weren’t going all out for the festivity. They booked a fancy hotel for the ceremony, reserved the ballroom for the reception, and bought enough food to feed an army.

They’d also invited a bunch of Mr. Gross’s clients. The guests Devi was forced to interact with everyday ranged from D list celebrities to nauseatingly boring entertainment agents and lawyers.

Also, they invited people from her grade and their parents to the wedding. She has no idea why they did, and why her and her mother were included on the guest list, but it didn’t really matter. Only three kids showed up to the ceremony. One was Devi, the other was Hiram (the exchange student from Egypt), and the last was Ben Gross.

Yeah, she still can’t get over that she was stuck in proximity to Ben Gross for infinity. What terrible thing had she done to deserve this? His constant mockery, stupid smirks, and kindred intelligence to hers that made him one of the most unbearable people to be around.

That’s why more days than not, Devi leaves the wedding to go back to Sherman Oaks. She hangs out with Fabiola, who works with her robotics team at the high school today. Other days, she spends time with Eleanor at her play rehearsal at a local community theatre.

She’s convinced them to skip their obligations a few times to have a sleepover, go on a road trip, or just sit together and talk until the day resets. Devi likes spending the day around them. They help her forget how agonizing her life has become.

But Devi has been going to Sherman Oaks less and less these past few loops. She’s starting to feel that nothing matters when everything will just reset anyway. So, she’s been going to the wedding more lately and trying not to go crazy over how everything she once felt, who she once was, is starting to drift away.

Each day she spends at the hotel in Malibu goes something like this:

She eats a tense breakfast with her mom, and there’s a minor fire in the kitchen that burns her eggs. Devi then heads to the pool, spending most of the afternoon floating aimlessly in the water.

After a few hours, she goes back to her room, where she finds Ben sitting in the hallway near her suite. They end up bantering for a while, usually about how the other’s presence is so offensive to them or how the other’s intelligence is inferior before Devi leaves to change for the wedding.

A woman dramatically plays the piano at the ceremony and has to get waved to a stop by the time Ben’s mom reaches the end of the aisle. The vows are stereotypical, and someone always coughs as Ben’s mom says I do. A bridesmaid trips back down the aisle, and everyone heads to the ballroom for the reception.

The ballroom is always packed with people dancing until the music playlist runs out. A band consisting of a group of dentists known as “The Toothaches” perform. They drive everyone away from the dance floor with their music that leans heavily on a synthesizer and their songs that have nonsensical lyrics like “the sirens sound in the belly of the whale.” 

Nalini also gets stuck talking to a guy about a curious-looking mole during the reception. She tries to get Devi to talk when she tears herself away from the conversation. Devi apologizes most nights to her and forces a smile.

Near the end of the reception, they call Ben up to say a few words. Devi has to sit and listen to Ben to give a terrible speech about the dictionary definition of love and watch him struggle to think up good memories of his parents.

After a few awkward claps, he exits the stage and disappears around midnight like he’s Cinderella or something. The night wraps up not too soon after, as some kid who catches the bouquet and uses it to hit a poor girl next to him ends up putting a damper on the festivities.

She’s done a lot of crazy stuff in this loop to entertain herself. She’s set up a murder mystery scene in the ballroom with tape, called in a circus crew to interrupt the ceremony, and learned about every single guest so she can surprise them in the next loop.

But Devi has started to give up, which is why she plans to live this day with no pomp and circumstance.

After breakfast with her mother, she goes to the pool like always. But today, she leaves a few minutes earlier than usual because Devi accidentally left a hand in the water as she sat on the pink circular floaty. She hates when her hands get pruney, so she dries off and heads to the elevator to go back up to her room.

As she steps out of the elevator, she thinks of a new way to insult Ben in the hallway. It’s one thing she looks forward to each day, because their conversations are never repetitive like they are with everyone else.

It strangely makes sense, because Ben has always been able to bring out things in her that other people can’t. While some parts of their conversations rhyme, it’s consistently a new tune. There’s always new comeback, a unique turn of phrase, and a different subject to banter about until she’s either fuming angry or grinning madly at him.

That’s why every day, she goes to finds him in the hallway. But when she approaches the spot where he’s usually sitting on the floor, she instead sees him on the phone pacing.

“No, you don’t understand. You need to come,” Ben urges, pressing the phone to his ear. “The cancellation was a mistake. My parents are expecting you.”

Devi leans against the wall a few feet away, as if that would somehow make her invisible.

“They have a room dedicated to you guys, it’s called the Doobie Brothers room. You can’t do this.”

Seriously? They originally got The Doobie Brothers to play at the reception? Devi thinks they would’ve been way better to listen to then The Toothaches.

Devi carefully takes a step forward to hear him better. She cringes her flip flops causes a loud squishing sound to echo in the hallway.

Ben’s jolts when he sees her, losing the grip on his phone. He plays hot potato with it for a little bit before he finally gets a grip and holds it back up to his ear.

“Please. Uh—I just can’t let you go. Little darling, I love you.” Devi raises an eyebrow at this, and Ben looks disgruntled by the person on the other end of the call. “That’s not creepy! It’s one of your lyrics. How do you not know that? Wait, I’m sorry, don’t hang—.”

There’s a beat of silence before he lowers his phone with a frown.

“Up,” he finishes meekly.

He leans against the wall, sliding down it till he’s sitting on the ground.

This must be the point where Devi always finds him every day. Because she left the pool earlier than usual, she got to see what got him sitting on the floor. Suddenly, she feels bad for insulting him all those times in this same spot.

“Um, are you ok?” Devi asks, trying to suppress a smile. “Little darling?”

Ben snaps his head up at her with an annoyed glare.

“This is all your fault, your stupid flip flops threw me off. I could’ve convinced them to come if you had dried your feet before putting your shoes on after getting out of the pool like a normal person.”

Devi slides down the wall, sitting next to him.

“I think they weren’t going to come no matter what you said,” Devi says because she’d lived this day enough to know that the Doobie Brothers had never come to the wedding. “Plus, I’ve seen you in debate club. You’re too combative when you speak, and it detracts from your arguments.”

“I’m the one who’s combative. You once threw someone’s backpack out the window when they told you your opinion on who Sophie’s father is in _Mamma Mia_ was wrong.”

“That’s because my opinion is correct, it’s Sam! I’d rather it be Harry or Bill, but the timing of when Donna finds out about the pregnancy and when they were together in the second movie works out,” Devi shouts, folding her arms across her chest. “If you call Amanda Seyfried, who is probably on your Dad’s list of contacts, she will tell you. Go steal his phone, and I’ll prove it.”

“Do you not have anyone else’s shoulders that you can play the devil on?” Ben asks with an exasperated sigh. “I’ve got enough on my shoulders today.”

She rolls her eyes. “All you have to do today is stand up at the altar and give a speech at the reception.”

“A speech?” Ben freezes. “Why would I have to give a speech?”

“Uh, because you’re the best man.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“David, I think I’d know that not you,” Ben scoffs. “My Dad’s most recent client William Millhouse is the best man.”

“The guy who owns that fast-food chain whose kids are all actors?”

Ben nods hesitantly. “I get to stand next to my dad, but he’s the actual best man. My dad wants to handle his lawsuit case over someone finding a rat’s tail in a milkshake at one of his restaurants.”

“But he’s only there for the ceremony, and then he leaves.”

Ben looks at her in confusion, and she has to refrain from banging her head on the wall. She usually knows how not to make anyone suspicious with her knowledge of the day. But for some reason, Ben always knows how to throw her off her game.

After all, that’s why they’re rivals. They’re the only ones who can get under each other’s skin.

“At least, that’s what I heard from another guest,” Devi lies.

“Funny, isn’t it? My parents care more about a guy staying five minutes than their own family.”

He begins to frown, and for some reason, it causes something inside Devi to twist painfully.

“My mom kicked her sister off the guestlist for that guy who pretends to be the Kardashian’s brother because she thinks it’s the first step to meeting them,” Ben adds bitterly.

“Alright, that doesn’t speak too well of them. But they did invite me, so obviously, they have good taste.”

His lips tilt up a fraction, and she feels herself mirroring his expression.

That’s another annoying thing about Ben. His behavior is infectious. When he gets into a topic in class, Devi instantly feels just as passionate about it. When he calls her out about something, she challenges him back with just as much venom in her words.

Ben’s smile, however, is the deadliest infection of them all. It makes it impossible not to smile back.

“I can’t believe you showed up, by the way,” Ben mentions. “What did your mom do, drag you here and promise you tickets to a Sia concert or something?”

“No. But believe me, if I could not be here, I would.”

Ben’s lips twitch downwards, causing Devi to grimace.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I—.”

“No, I get it,” Ben interrupts, waving her off. “For once, I agree with you. I don’t want to be here either.”

While Devi’s noticed that Ben goes from panicked, bored, to moping in the corner every day, she’s never really considered why.

“Why don’t you want to be here?”

Ben opens his mouth to respond, but Tommy, the kid who hits the girl with the flower bouquet every night, runs down the hall. Tommy leans down, tugging on Ben’s shirt.

“Ben, one of the other guests, ran into the cake and knocked it over in the kitchen,” Tommy says, panting.

“I better go,” Ben groans, standing up. “The cake is themed after their first date. It’s shaped like a plane flying to Paris. It’ll look horrible if the plane crashed onto the Eiffel Tower.”

As Ben starts to walk away, Devi finds herself standing up on instinct. She grabs his elbow, and her touch makes his body go completely still.

Devi thinks that she should probably take her hand away, but she finds it glued there as his eyes turn to meet hers. She realizes for the first time how blue his eyes are. She’s stared into them while arguing many times. But in those instances, they were filled with fire—a blazing blue like a gas flame on a stove.

But instead, the color of his eyes reminded her less of a gas fire and more of the blue hydrangea’s she sees out the window of her hotel room. The sight of the hydrangeas always makes her smile, because they remind her that things are still growing, even though Devi feels forever stuck in one place.

Looking into Ben’s eyes gives her a similar emotion as looking at those flowers. Like her day just got a bit better.

“Why are you in charge of all this if you don’t want to be here?” 

For a moment, Devi watches Ben’s face open up to her in a way she’s never witnessed before. Almost like he is going to drop the act they’ve been performing since the first grade.

But the look is gone within a few seconds, his expression clouding up again.

“Or something,” Ben replies faintly.

Devi’s hand falls from his arm as he walks away.

She watches him leave, feeling for the first time in a long time that this day mattered because it mattered to Ben.

* * *

Devi finds Ben later that day on the dance floor as The Toothaches begin to play their third song. It’s about chewing bubblegum at the Grand Canyon for some reason.

He’s sitting at the table near the front of the ballroom by himself. He’s got his nose in a novel with a green cover. Ben doesn’t even lower his book from his face when she sits next to him.

“So, where did you find these guys?” Devi asks, eating a cupcake someone left uneaten on their plate. 

Ben flips to the next page, but he lowers his book an inch to meet her eyes. “It’s my dentist’s band. He uses the chance of my mouth being held open to talk about it.”

“He’s lucky that he can get you to shut up,” Devi smirks.

Instead of quipping back, he bobs his head to the stage. “They’re terrible, aren’t they?”

“I can kind of groove to this if you don’t listen to the random drum beats and cracks in the lead singer’s voice.”

Ben winces. “Yeah, I think he just had a root canal.”

Devi sets the cupcake down. “So, you never answered why.”

“Why what?”

“Why you’re doing all this,” she says, gesturing all around them. “Why is it your responsibility to take care of the cake, music, and everything else?”

Ben seems to debate with himself for a few moments before putting his book down, facing the pages down on the table to save his place.

“Somehow, all of my dad’s clients got told the wedding was on a different day, and the band got canceled. My parents were going to forget the whole thing this morning if I didn’t call everyone and invite them last minute.”

She frowns. “Shouldn’t all that stuff not really matter at a wedding?”

“It does to them,” Ben says, his jaw clenching. “They threw this whole thing to please my dad’s clients and afford a vacation house in Maui from their gifts.”

Devi usually likes it when she finally understands something, but this time, she wishes she didn’t.

“Why didn’t you just let them call it off?”

He sighs. “I guess I just want to make them happy—to make them notice.”

She tilts her head at him. “Notice what?”

“Nothing,” he assures, but he doesn’t sound certain. After a few seconds, Ben stands up from the chair. “I’m getting tired. I think I’m going to call it a night.”

Ben starts to walk away, leaving his book on the table.

Before Devi can second guess herself, she gets up and puts a hand on his shoulder.

“I notice you,” Devi says.

Ben scans Devi, trying to detect sarcasm in her. Devi could run away from this uncomfortable moment because he would forget her embarrassing retreat and confession tomorrow.

But instead, she stays put, feeling that it’s important he knows this—at least for one night. 

“What do you mean?” Ben asks.

“You’re like this bright light,” Devi continues. “One that can be super annoying and get in my eyes, but it can also be…illuminating.”

Ben illuminates to Devi ways to be better. He points a flashlight to the problems she tries to ignore. He also puts a spotlight on her strengths by never treating her with pity. He’s always regarded her as a powerful adversary no matter the circumstance. 

At this moment, in particular, Ben seems to be illuminating her. Devi feels herself basking in his glow when he starts to smile.

“Well, if I’m a light, you’re a kaleidoscope,” Ben reasons, stepping closer to her. “The number of colors you add to a room is overwhelming.”

“In a great way, though, right?”

He rolls his eyes. “Let’s not push it.” 

She bumps her shoulder against his. “But pushing it is what we do.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Ben agrees, beaming at her.

They hold each other’s gaze for a few beats longer before Ben starts to walk away.

Devi waves goodbye when he turns around, causing them to wave at each other from across the room like two dorks until she eventually turns her back to him.

She walks back to Ben’s table, and her eyes go to his parents. They’re still talking the ears off of people in cold looking suits. They didn’t even have their first—well, she guesses second first dance as husband and wife. They didn’t notice Ben leave either and didn’t seem to care.

While Devi is in a difficult situation with her mom for eternity, she knows that her mom notices every time she’s gone. Ben doesn’t have someone in his life to worry about him like that makes her sad.

To distract herself, Devi picks up the book Ben had been reading. As she looks at the cover, she learns that it’s _Anne of Green Gables_. His choice of a book surprises her, but she feels a smile tugging at her lips as she runs her fingers over the well-worn cover. 

Devi goes to the page he’d left off on, and reads the first paragraph on the page:

_"Did you see all the diamonds those ladies wore?" sighed Jane. "They were simply dazzling. Wouldn't you just love to be rich, girls?"_

_"We ARE rich," said Anne staunchly. "Why we have sixteen years to our credit, and we're happy as queens, and we've all got imaginations, more or less. Look at that sea, girls—all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness anymore if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.”_

Devi puts the book down, feeling as if someone grabbed her heart and squeezed it.

She’s been in enough English classes to know that a book has an endless amount of meanings, depending on the person reading it. She can’t help but think about why Ben was reading this particular section of the book, as he was surrounded by expensive decorations and his parents far away from trying to get more expensive stuff.

Devi snaps the book closed, knowing what she needs to do. 

* * *

Devi calls up the orchestra members the next morning, using the empty hotel room a floor up that she finds a keycard for every day behind a plant. She uses the room on the days she needs space, and today is one of those days.

All the members of the orchestra ask her if she’s going to join them in the fall once school starts. She says yes, even though she knows that day will never come.

She also reaches out to their conductor, who forces her into a twenty-minute conversation about how bad he feels about what happened at the concert and hopes she’ll come back to play with them. Devi thinly thanks him and gives him the directions to the hotel.

She waits until she knows Ben will be in the hallway and goes out to find him on the phone when it’s time.

“Don’t hang—up,” Ben says like he did the day before, falling to the same spot on the floor. 

Devi leans against the wall casually. “Problems with the band?”

“How did you know that?”

“I have my sources,” Devi shrugs.

“You can’t get away with saying that and have no explanation, you’re not a spy in a Bond film,” Ben says, rolling his eyes.

She sits down next to him. “Gross, take this time to relax. I’ve got the music covered.”

He studies her, his features softening. “Why would you do that for me?”

“I’m afraid that if I don’t, these lines will stay permanently on your face,” she says, poking at the creases on his forehead.

He gives a half-smirk. “Since when do you care about my face?”

“I don’t,” Devi says, blushing. “I’ll have to see you every day when school starts back up. I’d rather your face not be so ugly when I wave my better math test grade in front of it. I’m doing this for me.”

Ben doesn’t look convinced. But instead of calling her out, he remains silent with a ghost of a smile on his face.

His eyes lock onto hers, and she feels as if he’s just picked up a book and started reading it. Devi’s never had someone look at her like this, like they want to keep turning her pages to find out more about her.

Devi squirms, shifting against the hallway wall. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

She doesn’t have a good answer, and the fact that her mouth opens and closes makes a slow grin crosses his cheeks.

Devi feels something blooming in her as he does, but it’s not a flower she can define. It’s just a stem sticking out from the dirt, but it’s firmly planted in the soil. She knows that whatever this feeling is that she’s starting to have around Ben isn’t going away anytime soon.

“Now you’re the one who’s looking at me weird,” Ben points out.

Her eyes seem to flicker to his lips at their own accord. Devi swears that his eyes do the same thing to her. As soon as he moves an inch closer, she jolts away from him.

“I have people coming for the reception,” Devi tells him, clearing her throat. “Be prepared to be amazed.”

Before he can say anything else, Devi proceeds to run down the hallway.

She goes into the empty room, where she had put her harp. Earlier that day, Devi had run downstairs to get in an Uber to drive back to her house to get it.

As she practiced, Ben’s lips lingered in her mind, making the notes she played sound more yearn-full than usual. 

* * *

Considering that she hasn’t played in the orchestra since her dad died and during the entire time she’s been stuck in this loop, she thinks she performs rather well. Because Devi was playing the harp, she couldn’t see everyone’s responses. But she was relieved to see the crowd of people still on the dance floor after they finished the first song, swaying to the music. 

When the conductor announced the first dance for the bride and groom, Devi’s relieved to see Ben’s parents break out of a business deal and break on the dance floor instead.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Ben on the ballroom floor. But he’s too far away for Devi to read his reaction. At least he’s not sitting alone after his awkward speech like he usually does. So, she takes that as a win.

After they finish their last song, Devi sees Mr. and Mrs. Gross walking over to Ben.

This is it, Devi thinks, they’re going to thank Ben for pulling off these last-minute changes. So, she won’t have to see Ben wallow the rest of the night for once.

But as they got closer, Ben's father gives him a single pat on the shoulder, probably saying something like “atta boy.” His mother gives a thumbs up before going to talk to a group of people.

Devi groans. Even when everything went perfectly, they still didn’t thank Ben, or even realize that their wedding shouldn’t be spent schmoozing to clients.

When Devi makes her way over to him, she’s surprised to see his nose not stuck in his book for a change. Instead, he’s eating a piece of cake and greets her with a smile.

“You guys weren’t half bad,” Ben admits.

She fake gasps. “Is Ben Gross admitting that I was right?”

“Barely, I said you guys weren’t half bad,” he responds dryly. “You have to work hard if you want me to admit you’re right about something.”

Devi sits down, arching her eyebrow. “So, you’re saying there’s a chance.”

Ben’s gaze turns more serious, giving her that look that he gave her earlier in the hallway.

“There’s always a chance,” Ben says.

Devi chews on her lip, feeling the way she used to when she looked at Paxton, who spent today always at a football retreat.

She’s tracked him down once before, and even told him how she felt. But after she kissed him like she’s always wanted, Devi felt disappointed, as if she thought it would somehow fix everything in her life. When it didn’t, and the day just reset, her feelings for him started to fizzle out.

Because Devi’s forced to be alone each day, she discovers truths about herself that she wouldn’t have admitted to before. She knows now that she never really liked Paxton that way, she just wanted to distract herself from everything going wrong in her life.

But this feeling she has for Ben doesn’t feel like a distraction. No, what Devi is beginning to feel for Ben is different. It’s something real. 

Before Devi can second guess herself, she’s leaning over. She places a hand on Ben’s cheek and kisses him. She feels Ben’s soft lips move against hers for a few seconds before she pulls away.

Her mouth falls open, and his eyes go wide.

Oh God, she just kissed Ben Gross. She kissed Ben, her rival, the guy she glared at and yelled at daily. What was she thinking? Has this day made her finally go insane? Is she just imagining how good and right that felt? What would she—.

Her mind finally stops spinning when Ben leans in and kisses her, putting her back on her axis.

There’s more intensity to it this time. Devi wraps her hands around his neck, angling towards him on her seat. Devi’s heart quickens as his hands go around her waist, feeling like they always belonged there.

When Ben pulls away, she feels his ragged breath on her cheeks. Up this close, she can smell the scent of orange blossoms that must be from his cologne on his skin.

“Thanks for the music,” Ben whispers.

“I’m sorry that it didn’t get your parents to—you know, stop being the worst,” Devi sighs.

“It’s fine,” he says, shaking his head. “I think it’s time I stop trying so hard and accept that it is what it is.”

She frowns, thinking of her father and this whole situation. “I know what you mean.”

After a few more minutes, they finally say goodnight. Ben goes up to his room, and Devi eats her way through the dessert table, trying not to think about what the hell just happened.

* * *

Devi tries not to make a habit of it—really, she tries. But she can’t seem to stop herself. Every loop Devi talks to Ben, and every few loops, she kisses Ben. While she doesn’t get the school orchestra every time, she finds some way to relieve him from the stress of the day.

This time, Devi decides to try something new. She’s been holding out doing it until she crafts the perfect speech to give at the reception. But now, she’s ready.

As they call Ben up to give his speech, she runs up to the stage with a glass in her hand, ignoring her mother’s voice protesting behind her. 

She takes the microphone from the stand before they can hand it to Ben. Devi faces the audience, ignoring his and everyone else’s shocked looks.

“So…love. That’s what’s brought us here today,” Devi says, clearing her throat. “It’s a love that’s endured for twenty years, which isn’t as long as it takes to pay off student loans, but it’s still a long time.”

That gets a few meek laughs, due to most people in the room being in their 40s who aren’t facing the same college debt and crushing economy as people in her generation.

“We all start lost, and love is something we find along the way.” Devi looks over to Ben, who’s now stepped back so he’s at the side of the stage. She begins talking directly to him. “The darkness comes, hiding it from sight, which makes us sometimes believe it’s gone.”

Ben spares a glimpse behind him like you do when someone you barely know waves at you before you wave back at them.

“We can take it for granted,” Devi continues. “But it’s still there, waiting for us to notice it.”

Devi forces herself to look away from Ben and the stupid suit he’s wearing. It looks ridiculously good on him, and his skinny tie matches his eyes in a way that drives her crazy.

She then points the finger at his parents. They stop their conversation with the woman who is the agent for Jeremy Renner to listen to her.

“This lovely couple has done something even harder today while they’ve been on this journey of love for a long time. They woke up, turned on the light, and promised to continue loving each other.”

His parents look at her strangely but they have fake smiles on their faces that would make customer service agents and waitresses proud.

“While it may be scary to think of your future, you can do it because you are never alone. They are so loved. I mean, look at this party they’ve thrown for their closest friends, people they met at a teacher’s conference once,” Devi says, meeting eyes with her stunned mother from across the ballroom. “Also, people who believe suing people is a hobby.”

That gets more laughs. Devi leans on the microphone stand, her confidence growing.

“We will all continue to cheer them on because we’ve seen through the darkness, and found love.” She turns back to Ben, whose eyes are glued on her with so much intensity that her handshakes a little as she raised her glass at him. But she smiles, a smile that is just for him. “We’ve found you. You are no longer lost. Cheers.”

Everyone gives her a round of applause. She even gets a few whoops and whistles. Devi swings back the contents of the glass, which is something bubbly and pungent. She’s had it here before, but she still grimaces as the alcohol burns down her throat.

As she starts to exit the stage, she bumps into Ben.

“That was some speech, David. I mean, I saw you freeze up when you got called to read a paragraph of our textbook aloud in class,” Ben says, shaking his head in bafflement. “Where did all that come from?”

“I guess the moment just spoke to me,” Devi smiles smugly.

His lips quirk up in amusement. “Oh yeah, what did the moment say?”

“It said to speak my heart and not give a shit about what anyone else thinks.”

“So, all that up there was from the heart?”

“Yes and no,” Devi says, tossing her head back and forth. “I have wished that I wouldn’t have taken someone I loved for granted before.”

Ben nods knowingly. “Your dad.”

Devi freezes, looking stunned. She hasn’t brought her dad up in this loop, how could he possibly know what she meant?

Maybe it’s not Devi’s speech or the fact that she got an orchestra to play at the reception that makes this thing between her and Ben shift from animosity to something else entirely. Perhaps it’s something that’s always been there, and Devi’s just now turned on the light to see it.

“Your speech brings up a nice concept,” Ben says, breaking the silence. “But shouldn’t it be love that finds us? If we all start lost as you said, how can we ever find it until love comes to us?”

“I think it comes to us, but we’re too busy looking around at other things.”

Ben doesn’t argue with that. Instead, they walk off the stage together. When she passes her mom, Devi says she’ll explain everything later (which she won’t, cause the day will just reset anyway).

“This is a great cake,” Devi says, eating the chocolate raspberry buttercream cake that her taste buds have memorized.

“What’s up with you?” Ben asks, studying her curiously. “I thought the Devi repellent I’ve been spraying had worked so well since the first-grade. We can’t seem to be around each other for more than five minutes. But today, you willingly talked to me in the hall, and you saved me with that speech.”

“Your personality repels me enough. The orange blossom cologne that you use as repellent has nothing to do with it.”

He tilts his head. “How do you know I use that kind of cologne?”

“ _Because when we kiss, it lingers on my clothes_ ,” Devi thinks. “ _Because I think of the smell when I can’t fall asleep. Because that smell of oranges mixed with the scent of the lavender shampoo is so distinctly you, that I can never forget it_.”

“Because I love orange blossoms, I can smell it within miles,” she explains, fidgeting in her chair. He doesn’t look convinced, but Devi squares her shoulders, starting to grin. “You want to go somewhere?”

“I can’t just leave my parents’ wedding,” he scoffs.

“Your parents are barley at their wedding,” Devi points out, which he nods at with a weak smile. “Now, come on.”

Devi grabs his elbow and pulls him up. She leads them out of the ballroom, and to the elevator and pushes on the second floor.

“Where are we going?” Ben asks.

Devi rolls her eyes as the elevator stops. “Will you for once just shut your pie hole?”

“Is that a hint? Are we getting pie?”

She walks in front of him, leading him down the hall. She grabs her keycard and opens the door.

“Tada!” Devi exclaims, gesturing towards the pool.

The room is empty, the water calmly lapping in the pool. Twinkle lights hang on the walls, and underwater lights illuminate the water with multiple colors. There are also two pool floats sitting for the taking. 

“This place looks awesome,” Ben says, looking around in amazement. “Why is it empty?”

“Because it’s closed at this time at night, but I have my ways.”

She grabs the bag she put down here after putting this all together this afternoon. She throws swimming trunks that she got from the gift shop towards him.

He catches it, still looking a little confused as he walks towards the changing room.

Devi quickly changes into her swimsuit, and sits down and waits for Ben as she wades her feet in the water. After a minute or so, she hears Ben’s footsteps approaching from behind her.

She turns, and her mouth falls open when she sees him.

Ben. Has. Abs.

Devi stares at his torso, and she feels like pulling a Peggy Carter in Captain America and reaching out to touch him. When she finally takes her eyes off his stomach, she sees that he’s smirking.

“Like what you see?” Ben asks, his blue eyes glinting at her.

“No,” Devi says stiffly. “I’m just trying to refrain from puking at the sight of your awkward body.”

Ben laughs, but his cockiness fades as he looks at her. Devi tries to refrain from folding her arms across her chest. She wasn’t wearing a revealing swimsuit by any means. Her mother would never let her forget it if she saw a bikini in her drawer. She was wearing her favorite one piece that she’d packed when she heard the hotel would have a pool. It’s a dark red, with scalloped trim along the neckline. It’s simple, but it makes her feel confident whenever she wears it.

He reaches towards her tentatively, his fingers skimming the strap of her swimsuit as he moves a strand of hair off her shoulder. She feels a shock as the curls he moves hits the bare skin of her upper back, as if his touch somehow transferred into her hair.

“Like what you see?” Devi says back to him, but her words are more breathy than brash.

“In your dreams, David,” Ben says, but he flinches, his hand going to his side. “Now, are you going to tell me how you managed to get us here if it’s supposed to be closed?”

“Can you for once just stop asking questions and trust me?”

He studies her intently, his eyes glinting softly like a lantern in the dark. “I trust you.”

“Good,” Devi smiles. “The first rule of standing by a pool, don’t have you back turned.”

Devi pushes Ben into the pool, causing a big splash as he hits the water. She cackles, watching him surface with his hair matted to his head.

Ben swims forward, his eyes flashing with a mischievous look she recognizes.

He grabs her ankle. “Here’s the second rule.”

Ben yanks her forward, causing her to flounder in the air as she falls into the pool. She feels a sting of cold as she hits the water, but it soon dissipates as she surfaces and sees Ben’s wild smile.

“The second rule is never to stand so close to the edge of the pool. Especially when your enemy is close by.”

Devi’s breath slows as she realizes how close the two of them are. Even though they’ve kissed before, she wonders if she’ll ever get used to this intense need she feels to close the distance between them. Or, if Devil will ever be able to accommodate the change of gravity that seems to occur around him.

“Are we actually enemies?” she whispers.

Ben looks taken aback for a second, but his surprise soon glazes over into something else. He tips his head cautiously forward, and Devi meets him halfway.

They kiss with the taste of chlorine on their lips. It should make them want to pull away from each other, but they don’t. Instead, they stay in the pool until their fingers prune. When their lips part from one another, they still float with their hands interlocked in the water.

* * *

Devi’s tired of it always being the first kiss on his side, but she’s never tired of kissing him.

She repeats that day, giving the speech that’s become engraved in her mind to gain Ben’s trust a few times.

However, they don’t always end up in the pool. Sometimes, they run around the hotel, drive to a 24-hour dinner and get milkshakes where Devi pretends to act disgusted when he dunks his fries into the chocolate. Once, they even run around the hotel in a game of tag. They wake up all the guests and hide in a closet from the manager while stifling laughs.

Devi wants more but just has to accept this is all she gets with Ben. Exploring their relationship further, even if she wasn’t stuck in this loop, would go nowhere anyway. They’re still Ben and Devi, who have been rivals since first grade. Why could they ever be anything else than what they’ve always been?

But it makes it hard to remember their rivals in this time loop. They don’t have many reasons to be at odds with each other without being in a classroom, making it easy for Devi to forget why she hates him in the first place. Every day, Devi has to remind herself that Ben and she are a disaster of a combination. This thing they have—this profound connection is just a blip. It’s a result of the time loop, that’s all it is.

Maybe she’s lucky in a messed-up way, to experience this kindred synchrony every day. It’s comforting and thrilling at the same time. Being with him is a nice break from the redundancies of that now overwhelm her life.

Today, Devi calls up Eleanor to ask for a huge favor. Eleanor questions Devi about her sanity for a while but eventually agrees like she has a few times before to Devi’s plan. Eleanor says she’ll call up drama students from their school and see what she can do.

Devi watches the clock until she knows Ben will be on the phone in the hallway. She finds him and tells him that she’s got the music for the reception covered.

At the reception, Devi gives the same speech as always while catching his eyes, feeling fireworks when they linger there. Then, she gets Eleanor and the drama club onto the stage, and they start to sing covers of musical songs. She’s gotten tired of playing the same songs on the harp. So, some of the past few loops she’s gotten them to perform instead.

Except for today, Devi decides to try one new thing.

She’s never gotten Ben to dance, not once. He always says no. But tonight is the night, she can feel it. Devi’s not going to play nice anymore. This is a personal vendetta now. Getting him on the dance floor would be a sweet victory she could live on for weeks of this agonizing day. It makes her feel like she’s back in the classroom, challenging him, and setting her mind ablaze as he gives her obstacles to overcome.

When the drama club starts singing “Suddenly Seymour” from _Little Shop of Horrors_ , Devi approaches Ben.

“Not a dancer, Gross?” she asks.

He puts down his book, scanning her with a wry smile. “Not with you.”

“Oh, come on,” Devi moans. “I remember those moves you brought out in the gym in seventh grade.”

He stuffs his face into his hands. “God, I don’t need that reminder of me splitting my pants at a middle school dance right now.”

“Why not? It’s one of my favorite memories of you.”

“Because it was humiliating?”

“No, because you didn’t seem so cocky for once,” Devi says, stepping next to his chair. “You were smiling, and you didn’t care if you looked like an idiot.”

“That’s something that clearly doesn’t bug you,” Ben says quickly, and then flinches at his words. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t supposed to sound like an insult. I was trying to thank you for what you did up there. That speech was great and saved my ass.”

Her eyebrow raises in amusement. “That was supposed to be a thank you?”

“Yes,” Ben exhales, looking adorably flustered. “I guess I’m not used to us being civil with you. But it’s actually a nice change.”

Devi feels heat rising to her cheeks, and nudges his shoulder with her fist. “Yeah, it’s not so bad.”

Ben gets up to stand next to her. They both start to lean against the table, watching Eleanor and one of the other drama kids sing.

“Did you mean any of that up there?” Ben asks suddenly. “About love waiting for us in the darkness, and it making us not be alone anymore?”

“I mean—I think we’ll always be alone in a way,” Devi admits. “But having people in your life that care about you help you feel less alone.”

“That sounds nice,” Ben says lowly, his hands going into his pockets.

“You have Patty,” Devi says softly. “She loves you.”

“I know,” Ben sighs. “But she’s still paid to be around me.”

“I’m not getting paid right now, am I? If so, I’m saving up for a car, so I’d be interested in getting onto your parent’s payroll.”

Ben laughs. “Why are you so being nice to me, anyway?”

“You’re always nice to me. I mean, at least today, you’ve been nice to me.”

“Maybe it’s just the craziness of this day somehow, making you not bring out the worst in me.”

“Ditto,” Devi smirks.

As the previous song ends, and Eleanor and one of the other drama students start singing “You Matter to Me” from _Waitress_ , she finally gathers the courage to hold out her hand to him.

“Do you want to dance?”

He blinks at her hand in disbelief. “What?”

“This is a musical song even non-musical lovers can love. Why not make the most of it?”

“And dancing with me would be making the most of it?” Ben asks dubiously. 

Devi rolls her eyes. “Just say yes before I change my mind.”

Ben looks back and forth from her hand to her face and eventually takes her outstretched hand in his.

She leads him to a spot on the dance floor that she knows will be open. When they stop, Ben surprises her by guiding them into the classic dance pose. Devi abstains from making a joke about how his parents probably made him learn to waltz because the heat of his hand in hers takes her aback. The way he pulls her closer by placing a hand on her waist makes the brain go a little fuzzy as they start to slow dance.

As they sway back and forth, Devi feels her head grow heavy. She lets it drop onto his shoulder. Ben doesn’t flinch away, he only further curls his arm around her waist to her back, and tugs her closer to him.

“Why’d you come tonight?” Ben asks quietly.

Devi raises her head from his shoulder. “What?”

“I know my parents invited people I knew to this so it wouldn’t look like a total sham to their clients. But most people didn’t come, you and your mom did,” he explains, his eyes focusing on hers. “Why?”

She swallows, looking away from him. While her dad has come up in different conversations of this day, Devi’s never told Ben the whole truth of why she and her mom came to the wedding.

“We came for a distraction after we spread our father’s ashes last night,” Devi admits, looking towards her mom from across the room, sitting sadly and drinking her champagne. “We were going to do it later this year. But my mom thinks I’m still in denial and thought spreading his ashes would help. But it just seemed to make things worse, especially between my mom and me.”

When she stops talking, Devi’s afraid of seeing pity in Ben’s eyes. But when she looks up at him, there’s not an ounce of halfhearted sympathy or fake sadness.

Instead, Ben is frowning and looks like he genuinely understands. 

“I’m sorry,” Ben says.

“You’d think that it wouldn’t be as bad after all this time. But it still is,” Devi tells him, tears stinging her eyes. “Grief is like this shadow that follows you.”

“I may not know what I’m talking about, so feel free to tell me to shut up—.”

“I always feel free to tell you that,” Devi interjects.

“What I was going to say is that maybe it’s a good thing you still feel that pain. In a way, remembering death reminds you that you’re still alive,” Ben says, looking away bashfully. “I don’t know. Maybe that sounds stupid.”

“What you say usually does,” Devi replies, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. “But not this time.”

He lets out a breath in relief. Devi places her chin over his shoulder as they continue to sway.

She feels like she should laugh at the irony of this moment. The song they’re dancing to has lyrics like, “ _I could find the whole meaning of life in the whole meaning of life in those sad eye_ s” and “ _you matter to me, simple and plain and not much to ask from somebody_.”

Devi feels like Ben matters in the way the song talks about. Even in this complicated time loop situation, this thing between them is simple. It’s like solving a problem on a test where the question gives the answer away.

Once the song ends, and the drama club takes their bows, Ben and Devi separate.

As they exit the stage, Ben leans his face close to her ear. “What if we go to the beach?”

She feels a sense of panic. She doesn’t like going down there because the pit that got her stuck here for eternity is a few feet down the beach in the sand.

“Why?”

“You don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here,” Ben answers, shrugging. “Let’s go down to the beach.”

Devi considers running away, coming up with some excuse about the beach having quicksand or pirates who are on the run, but it’s ridiculous to be afraid of the beach. She can just steer him away from the glowing sandpit, so this night doesn’t have to slip through her fingers.

“Yeah, sure,” she agrees. “Let’s go.”

They walk on the beach for half an hour, talking about things as necessary as the consequences for stellar evolution to whether or not _She’s the Man_ should be on the film preservation list. Devi thinks duh, it should be. But Ben argues that Amanda Bynes's weird southern sounding accent when she pretends to be a guy shouldn’t be immortalized. Devi brings up the gouda scene as a defense. Ben doesn’t admit defeat but doesn’t disagree with her any longer. He starts laughing at Devi’s attempt to make an impression of Amanda Bynes’s character, causing them to get strange looks from others on the beach. 

When they get close to the sandpit, she lies about having sore feet. They then sit down on some rocks. After a while, they lay on their backs, their shoulders brushing as they look up at the stars.

Devi feels Ben’s fingers brush against her knuckles. The touch is electric, sending a shiver through her that has nothing to do with the night's cold.

As his hand holds onto hers, and she turns her head to see his lips moving closer to hers, she feels something hard hid her head.

She falls off the rock, feeling woozy as she hits the ground.

“Devi!” Ben jumps down, kneeling next to her. “David, are you ok?”

Devi nods, and her hands are searching around her for what hit her. In the sand, she finds a small but heavy rock. The pit of her stomach drops when she turns around and sees a familiar figure moving in the bushes.

“I’m fine,” Devi assures. She stands up, putting distance between her and Ben. “Just go.”

She sees a look of hurt cross over his face.

“I know we joke about wanting the other one’s untimely demise, but those are just jokes,” Ben says, trying to move towards her even though she keeps stepping backward. “You should sit down.”

When Ben takes another step towards her, the figure jumps out of the bushes and begins to pelt Devi with more rocks.

Ben jumps in front of her, trying to shield her, but Devi just starts running as the person whose life she messed up chases after her.

“Don’t follow me!” Devi yells back towards Ben, whose eyes are extremely wide.

Devi runs down the beach, feeling the girl close on her tail. Devi also starts to see the red glow of the sandpit a few feet in front of her.

What’s even more frightening is that she hears not only one person’s footsteps but two.

“Ben, don’t follow me!” Devi yells, but the command sounds more like wheezes of breath. “Everything’s fine.”

“Someone who jumped out of the bushes like a crazy person is chasing you. Everything is not fine!”

Devi closes in on the sandpit, the light glowing red as she nears it. Out of her periphery, she sees the girl jumping out to tackle her.

Devi ducks out of the way, so the person falls through the sandpit. But she feels a hand grab her leg, pulling her down towards the pit.

“David!” Ben screams. “Devi!”

“Stop!” she exclaims to him.

Then, Devi sinks.

* * *

Devi wakes up with a gasp.

“Devi, wake up,” her mom says, like clockwork. “We paid to stay here, so we’re not missing the free breakfast.”

She groans, stuffing her head into her pillow and screaming. Last night was a close call. Devi made the mistake of bringing someone into the time loop once before. She won’t do it again. So, Devi gets up, prepared to make this day as mundane as possible. To live this day normally like she did before she and Ben were…well, before. Staying away from Ben was probably the best thing to do.

She goes to breakfast and listens to her mom say the same words as always.

Afterward, she heads to the pool like she used to, wading in the water on top of the pink floaty.

Devi finishes counting the tiles on the ceiling when she hears the pool slam door shut. She freezes, knowing that this has never happened before during this time frame. So, there’s only one reason there could suddenly be a change in the day.

She looks up, meeting the alarmed eyes of Ben Gross, who is still in his pajamas and is noticeably not on the phone in the hallway where he should be.

“What the hell is happening?” Ben screams.

Devi sighs. “I guess you followed me, huh?”

Ben drops to the ground and leans near the pool, grabbing Devi’s shoulders. “What the fuck going on? Why is this day the same as yesterday, and what the hell happened last night?”

She gets off her pool float and out of the water. “I’m sorry I tried to stop you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I tried to stop you from getting close to the sandpit. It’s a portal that traps you in time.”

Ben goes pale. “When is this?”

“Today was yesterday, yesterday is today, and tomorrow will forever be today.”

“Stop speaking in riddles,” Ben groans. “You’re not an owl in a commercial with a sucker.”

She smiles at the image of the owl in the tootsie pop commercial. “I could be if I got a grad cap and some Harry Potter round glasses.”

Ben puts his hands on his hips, hardening his glare.

Devi raises her hands in defeat. “We’re in an infinite time loop situation. Like in _Groundhog Day_.”

“But there are no groundhogs here!”

Devi knows he’s freaking out and has a right to sound ridiculous, but she can’t help start to laugh. “There doesn’t have to be groundhogs for it to be a groundhog situation.”

Ben starts pacing, the bottom of his pajama pants getting wet from the water dripping from Devi.

“I don’t understand. How come we both know it’s the same day, and no one else does?”

“Because a long time ago, I also fell into the glowing sandpit. I’ve lived this day so many times ever since. Now, you’re stuck in the same time loop like me, because you jumped into the pit,” Devi says, trying to ease the tension by jabbing his ribs with her elbow. “Not too smart of you, Gross, you should’ve listened to me.”

“I’m sorry, I was just freaking out because some crazy person attacked you and started chasing you,” he drawls sarcastically. “My bad for wanting to make sure you were ok.”

Devi deflates, the repercussions of last night weighing fully down on her.

“I’m sorry, I feel terrible you’re stuck in this. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, and we both know that’s you.”

Despite Ben’s exasperation, he laughs. “I’d say that it’s whoever chased you last night. Who was it, anyway?”

“Shira,” Devi mumbles quietly, hoping he doesn’t hear her.

But it’s Ben, so he picks up on everything.

“Shira? As in my girlfriend—well, sometimes girlfriend when she remembers?”

“Near the beginning, Shira came to the wedding. I got drunk one night, and Shira was talking about wanting to be eternally beautiful. So, I took her to the sandpit,” she tells him, cringing at the memory. “As she got closer to it, I realized what I was doing and tried to stop her. But I was so drunk that I passed out. I woke up to her, yelling at me the next morning like you just did.”

“So, she attacked you last night for revenge?”

“Yeah, she does that sometimes. She wakes up in Sherman Oaks every morning, and she only comes down here every once and a while to let out her anger on me.”

Ben frowns. “You shouldn’t let her do that.”

Devi shrugs. “I did ruin her life, so I think a few screaming sessions and acts of aggression towards me is fair.”

“But the way she’s taking out that frustration is terrible. She threw rocks at you,” Ben insists firmly. “You need to face her, so she doesn’t hurt you anymore.”

Devi waves off his concern. “It doesn’t matter. Any bruise just gets erased when the day resets.”

“But the stuff we do to each other still matters in this loop, doesn’t it?”

While Devi pretends that’s not true, because it makes everything a lot easier, she knows Ben’s right.

Ben pinches the area between his eyebrows. “There’s got to be a way out of this.”

“I’ve already tried everything. Every scenario I can think of.”

“What about karma? Maybe you have to do a bunch of good acts to get out of here,” Ben suggests.

“I’ve donated blood, given away all my belongings, and spent days doing service work. But it all goes undone the next morning.”

“Maybe it has to be more personal?”

“More personal than putting my blood into someone else’s body?” she snorts.

Ben hesitantly meets her eyes. “Have you tried making amends with your mom?”

“I have a few times, but the next morning she wakes up mad at me again,” Devi says, grabbing a towel on the beach chair and putting it around her shoulders. “It was just too much to say the same I’m sorry speech over and over.”

“Well, I’m not just going to do nothing. I have to try.”

She wants to convince him not to bother, but Ben’s as stubborn as she is, he’ll have to find out the unfortunate loop they’re in is not an escape room, where they have to pick up clues to find their way out.

There is no way out.

So, she just walks away, wishing him good luck as she leaves.

* * *

Ben interrupts the wedding ceremony later that day. He whispers something into his mother’s ear. As her father looks at him, confused, his mother begins to tear up. Ben pulls away after a few moments and smiles before walking down the aisle and leaving the wedding.

Devi watches him go and then looks back at Ben’s mom, who is holding a hand over her mouth and takes a while to respond to Ben’s dad, who is shooting looks at the guests to assure them that everything is fine.

Ben is nowhere in sight for the rest of the day, but she sees Ben and Devi’s parents mingling more with the limited number of family members and friends who got invited to the wedding. It makes her wonder what Ben said to them, and why he didn’t see that his words had a good impact on his parents.

It’s not until the next morning when her mom scolds her about getting up for breakfast that Devi sees him again. He’s knocking on her door, and she’s met with his defeated face when she opens it.

“You were right. Nothing matters.”

“I’m sorry,” she grimaces. “For once, I wish I wasn’t right.”

He leans against the doorframe. “How do we live like this?”

“We have no choice but to live. Death doesn’t work either. After feeling the pain of dying once, it’s not worth going through again.”

Ben’s eyes widened. “You tried to—.”

“No. I almost did once, but I didn’t,” Devi clarifies. “It was an accident. I fell off a cliff. But it didn’t matter. I died in the hospital and woke back up on the hotel floor.”

He rubs a hand through his hair, ruffling it, so it doesn’t look as tamed as usual. While Devi feels terrible for him, seeing his hair wild with his clothes wrinkled for some reason is oddly endearing.

“So, what does your day usually consist of?” he asks.

“Some days I go to the wedding, other times I go back to Sherman oaks and hang out with Eleanor and Fabiola. Eleanor has rehearsal today, and Fabiola has robotics. I’ve to watch Eleanor’s rehearsal 50 times. I have the scene they practice memorized,” Devi says proudly. “We all hang out some nights. I’ve convinced them to go on a road trip a few times around California. By myself, I got as far as Texas.”

“Wow. So, you’ve done pretty much everything.”

“There’s still an infinite number of things to do, but it’s hard to get the effort to do them.”

“Well, I’m in here now,” he says, starting to smirk. “We might as well have some fun.”

She feeds off his excitement, joining him in the hall. “What were you thinking?”

* * *

Each day they go back and forth on ideas of what to do. Ben was like a tourist with a binder, jam-packing the day with too many activities. Devi tells him they have plenty of time—an endless amount of it, so there’s no rush to do everything. He begrudgingly agrees, and from then on, they spend almost every day together.

They make a slip and slide down the hotel stairs. They mess with the guests by dressing up in different disguises until they make it inside the hotel’s best suite. They run up the room service bill and lounge in the huge beds. One day, they even pretend to be rival spies during the wedding ceremony, deactivating a bomb.

Some days they spend apart. Devi visits Eleanor or Fabiola, while Ben takes the time to read books he’s been meaning to read or practices playing the piano in the hotel lobby. One night, she accompanies him with her harp, even though his piano skills are only at the heart and soul level.

They spend a few loops at the retirement home nearby where they became close to this old married couple. Devi made a great friend Delores who was an incredible human rights lawyer. Ben finds a kindred spirit in Ernie, who spends every day playing chess. Devi and Delores read their lips from afar, making up things they’re saying. Ben and Ernie usually scowl at them when they notice their lip dubbing, causing her and Delores to burst out laughing.

Devi tries to ignore how her heart skips a beat when Delores refers to them as “our men” with a roll of her eyes. She hasn’t stopped thinking about how she didn’t correct Delores, or how Ben always says nothing when Ernie tells him to “hold onto this girl” whenever they leave.

One day, they drive to the Griffith Observatory because Devi always wanted to go. Her mom told Devi they could see stars for free in their backyard, so it was a waste of money, even though the tickets are only seven bucks.

They name constellations, bickering over the details of the Ara constellation’s origin, whether or not the Milky Way represents the smoke rising from the altar.

As they walk through the exhibits, Ben and Devi start to discuss event horizons of black holes.

Event horizons are where nothing, not even light, can escape it. To everyone else, anything that enters the horizon turns invisible. But to those objects that reach the event horizon, the singularity ruptures the whole fabric of space and time. The event horizon is the point of no return of the black hole, as it shatters everything people understand about physics.

Devi feels as if she and Ben have created an event horizon. All the excuses Devi had before about this thing between her and Ben shatter. They’ve reached the point of no return, creating new meaning as their hands' brush.

* * *

It’s been about a month or since Ben’s been in the time loop with her when they decide to go out to the shopping district nearby. She has a chocolate ice cream cone, while Ben is that lame person who gets a single scoop of butter pecan in a bowl.

“Do you think these sunglasses are overkill?” Devi asks, lowering her cat-eye frames and striking a pose.

Ben, who has a bag full of nerdy memorabilia, liked limited edition comic books and a high-end lightsaber replica he got at a pop culture store, grins at her.

“You’re overly dramatic, so the sunglasses go with your aesthetic.”

Devi sticks out her tongue at him, and Ben laughs.

“I’ll have you know that I showed up once in a full-on gown to Paxton’s house once, and he appreciated my style.”

Ben’s expression flinches. “Oh, so you used the time loop to get with Paxton?”

Devi ducks her head. “I did go over to see him a few times, in the beginning, trying to figure out how not being an awkward mess around him.”

“Did it work?”

“Yes,” Devi says, nervously licking the chocolate ice cream from her lips. “We kissed a few times, but even having forever in this loop, I could never do anything more.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” Devi sighs. “I guess I realized I didn’t like him that much, it felt like I was forcing something rather than falling into it, you know?”

Ben nods. “I do know, that’s what it was like with Shira.”

“You dodged a bullet on that one.”

“Unlike how you dodged the rock she threw at you,” Ben jokes, making Devi gently punch him in the shoulder.

“Anyways, I realized even trying a relationship in this loop was useless,” Devi continues, eating the last of her ice cream cone. “I even kissed Hiram once when I was at rock bottom.”

Ben stops on the sidewalk, gaping at her. “Hiram? The exchange student who clips his nails during class?”

“I know, it was a mistake,” Devi groans. “I had some mixed drinks, and he completed my dress. It lasted for less than a second, and then I ran to the pit to reset the day as quickly as possible.”

They go to sit on a bench in front of a fountain. Ben puts his bags and an empty bowl on the ground, leaning forward.

“So,” he says, his voice cracking a little. He gestures awkwardly between the two of them. “Um, before I got stuck in here, did we ever…you know?”

Devi feels her heart drop.

She hasn’t told him yet.

She hasn’t told him any of what happened in previous loops. 

Devi has been expecting him to ask her for some time now. It’s only reasonable for Ben to predict that they might’ve kissed or done something in other versions of the day that he doesn’t remember.

She could be honest, tell him that they have kissed before. But this new thing she had going with Ben is too good. Devi has finally started getting excited when she wakes up in the mornings instead of dreading it. She didn’t know what she’d do if he ended up hating her after learning she’d kept their past moments together as a secret.

Plus, Ben had been in her life forever—acting as a north point. Devi feels like she’d lose direction without him.

“Honestly, I don’t remember,” Devi lies, leaning back casually on the bench.

Ben makes a disbelieving sound. “How could you not remember if we did?”

“I’ve been here for a long time, and maybe you weren’t memorable.”

“I am super memorable,” Ben defends. He crosses his arms, but his face relaxes. “So obviously, we’ve never done anything.”

They both begin to watch kids and adults alike throw coins into the fountain. Before, she had no problem thinking of things to wish for. Devi’s mind was a constant flow of thoughts, opinions, and dreams. But now, sitting next to Ben as his hand skims her shoulder and leans into him, only one wish comes to her mind.

She wishes that Ben and her never get tired of each other while being stuck in this endless day.

But as they begin to bicker, seeing that alike spark in Ben’s eyes as he talks, Devi knows that she has nothing to worry about.

She’s never been tired of Ben Gross once in her life, being stuck in a time loop wouldn’t change that.

* * *

Devi finds Ben in the hallway a few days later, listening to music distracting himself from the many calls he got today from his parents and father’s clients.

“Hey, I had this idea where we could hide treasure all around the hotel today and create a map and get some of the other guests involved,” Devi says, showing him a bag full of fake treasure she’d gotten at the Dollar Store.

“Sounds like a _Suite Life of Zack and Cody_ episode,” Ben muses with a smile. “So, I’m in.”

“Great! First, we can—.”

Her words are interrupted by the sound of someone stomping down the hallway towards them.

“Devi, I can’t believe you,” her mother says harshly. “You can’t just disappear on me!”

Devi folds her arms across her chest. “I thought after our argument yesterday. You would want me to disappear.” 

Nalini rolls her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic.”

“I’m not dramatic!”

“Yelling in hallways is dramatic!”

When they get a few strange looks from a couple walking out of their room, her mother takes a deep breath. “I’m going to go to the spa, and you are going to think about what you did wrong and have no fun. The only way to make you do that is by hanging out with Ben until the ceremony.”

“But that would be punishing me too,” Ben mutters under his breath, but she can see him holding back a smile. 

“Devi talks about you all the time. Ben Gross is wrong about this. I beat Ben in that. Ben got a higher score than me on the history final, but I got a better grade on the science test,’” Nalini quotes tiredly at him. “This is your punishment for hours I’ve wasted talking about you with Devi.”

Ben turns to Devi with a smirk. “David, I didn’t know you were so obsessed with me.”

Devi grits her teeth, elbowing his side. “Shut up, Ben.”

This display seems to satisfy Nalini. 

“Have no fun, you two,” she says, pointing the finger at them as she walks away.

When she disappears, Devi slumps against the hotel wall. Ben leans beside her, wrapping his earbuds around his phone and putting them in his pocket.

“What’s going on between you guys?” Ben asks. “I mean—I know things must be tense after you spread your father’s ashes, but what are you guys fighting about?"

“She’s mad at me for something I said,” Devi says quietly.

“What did you say?”

Devi flinches at the memory. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

Ben studies her for a few moments before he decides not to push it. Instead, he tempts a small smile.

“Do you want to help me fix the destroyed cake today?”

“Is Ben Gross is asking for my help?”

“Well, the task of fixing the cake is as overwhelming as you,” Ben says dryly.

Devi feels herself lighten. “I do really like cake.”

An hour later, they’re still trying to fix the airplane made out of fondant that one of the staff accidentally knocked over. Ben would apply more frosting, Devi would smooth it out, and they both seemed to know what utensil or type of icing they needed before they asked the other.

Ben and Devi had always been this electrical current between two metal wires, creating an electrical field. The current between the two points is directly proportional to the difference across the two locations. They are introducing a resistance while also creating a constant proportionality. Being with Ben felt like being on one end of an electrical current, managing to be in opposition while having this unceasing link to him.

Devi knows the current is stronger now than ever before, as they have a newfound understanding.

She’d been trying to crush Ben into the ground her whole life so she would come out on top. Now, they seem to be able to challenge each other and help each other thrive at the same time. She wonders if this loop ended if they’d work together in class as they did on this cake. She feels a pang of sadness that she’ll never get to find out.

Devi didn’t realize how long she’s been silent until Ben lightly nudges her shoulder with his. 

“Are you ok?” Ben asks.

“Why would you ask me that?” Devi says, clearing her throat and pushing her thoughts down. She reaches out, wiping his cheek. “You’re the one who has a bunch of flour on their face.”

“There’s something wrong. I can tell,” Ben insists. “Is it the fight with your mom?”

“I just don’t see the point in fixing it anymore, when I know it’ll get broken again. Making up only for her to wake back up mad is exhausting,” Devi says, her lips turning thin. “I’ll forever be reminded of the horrible thing I said to her.”

Ben puts down the piping bag on the table, waiting for her to continue.

“I think I’ll always just be broken,” Devi confesses, her voice cracking.

He grabs her trembling hand. “You remember that clock you made in the woodshop?”

“Oh, please don’t remind me,” Devi mutters, flexing her fingers. “I can still feel the splinters.”

“When everyone else got their parents to help, you refused,” Ben reminds her. “You ended up making this small version of a grandfather clock. There were three weights inside the clock. The left weight powered the hour strike, the middle weight drove the pendulum, while the right weight helps power chiming sequences.”

“I remember how clocks work. I made it,” Devi says, and then winces. “Well, it didn’t exactly work, the chimes kept going off at the wrong time.”

“Yeah, but your pendulum kept swinging. It kept going until the teacher pointed out how to fix the timing of the chimes.”

“Why are you reminding me of a woodshop project again?”

He points at her. “You’re the clock.”

“Excuse me?” Devi recoils. “I’m the grandfather clock in this scenario?”

“Yes,” Ben says with a crooked smile. “You’re here in front of me, standing, which you couldn’t even do last year. All the parts of you are still there. You just need to keep that pendulum swinging until you figure out how to chime right again.”

“It also helps when someone lends a hand in cranking the clock,” Devi says, enjoying how her pointed look makes him blush. “Thanks.”

“If you ever want to talk about family stuff, I’m here. I get what it’s like to feel like your parents don’t get you or even see you.”

As he starts to sniff, Devi frowns. “Are you ok?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Ben says, rubbing his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because it looks like you’re crying.”

“No, I’m not! I have bad allergies.”

“We’re inside,” Devi points out, biting back a smile.

“There’s pollen in the air vents and—.” Ben cuts off his own words, sitting onto the stool by the table with a sigh. “Alright, let’s get this over with. Make fun of me.”

“I’m not going to make fun of you.”

He seems a bit thrown. “Why not?”

Devi sits next to him. “Because I know what it’s like to feel like a disappointment to your parents. It sucks.”

“Your mom doesn’t think you’re a disappointment.”

“Uh, we’re you not there in the hallway earlier today?”

“Yes, but I can tell she loves you a lot.”

“She doesn’t anymore,” Devi says lowly. “I said something awful to her the day before the loop started.”

“You’re a hot-head, she probably knows you didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I said that I wish she would’ve died instead of my dad,” Devi mutters.

If Ben feels appalled by her statement, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he looks at her affectionately.

“Sometimes, people express their love in different ways. She just wants the best for you, even if she doesn’t know how to show it. Before this loop thing, you probably saw me going crazy, helping my parents pull the wedding off. I thought that if I did, they’d love me.” He looks away from her, rubbing a hand on his forehead. “God, that sounds pathetic.”

“It’s sad, not pathetic,” Devi asserts. “You don’t deserve that.”

He takes a deep breath and turns back towards the cake. “Does it look at least edible now?”

“Well, one way to find out.”

Devi picks up a fork and pushes it into the cake as Ben protests. Devi shoves the cake into Ben’s open mouth, coating his face with frosting.

Once he swallows, he grabs a piece of the cake, destroying their work. He shoves it into her mouth that was open from laughing.

They end up wrecking the entire cake, grabbing pieces off with their hands, and throwing it at each other. But as frosting and fondant coats Devi's hair and stains his shirt, she feels as if the clock Ben spoke about started to chime.

* * *

For two weeks, they spend each day practicing a dance number Devi convinced him to learn. Ben rolls his eyes and complains a little, but she can tell that he says fun as they dance around the spare hotel room like idiots, causing the guests below the room to come up and complain a few times.

Finally, when they’re ready, Devi gets the song up on her phone and blasts it through the reception speakers. All the guests gawk as they dance.

When Devi jumps into the air and Ben catches her, they get a round of applause.

He slowly lowers her to the ground, his hands around her waist and panting as their bodies hover closely.

“We totally rocked that,” Devi says, her lips still close to his.

His cheeks are bright red as he nods. “Yeah, we were actually pretty good.”

After a few moments, Ben finally moves his hands from her waist, and she removes hers from his neck.

“I say we do something to celebrate,” Devi suggests.

“Wasn’t the fact that we didn’t fall on our ass’s celebration enough?”

“I know you don’t know what fun is, but since we’re friends now, I’m taking you under my tutelage.”

He raises an eyebrow with a pleasing smile. “We’re friends now, huh?”

“It’s too late to go back now, you’re stuck with me…literally.”

“It’s not so bad,” Ben says. When Devi starts smirking, even more, he rolls his eyes. “I mean, I’ve been stuck with you my whole life. It was inevitable that you would somehow squirm your way into being my friend.”

She claps her hands together. “Great, so because we’re friends, that means I can ask you a favor.”

“It has to be something I can pull off in 24 hours.”

“This will take longer, but we have all the time in the world,” Devi reminds him. “You’re going to learn how to surf with me.”

He immediately starts shaking his head. “No way.”

“Why not? You’ve got nothing else to do.”

“I’d rather do nothing then swallow a bunch of saltwater and embarrass myself with my lack of balance.”

“You are very uncoordinated,” Devi agrees with a laugh. “Remember when you fell off the balance beam in the second grade and fell down the hill?”

“Westley and Buttercup made that look easy, but it’s more painful than it looks,” he winces at the memory.

“Maybe that’s because you didn’t have someone to fall with you,” Devi says. “I’ll be right next to you, on my board, falling into the water with you.”

His gaze turns soft. “You’d fall with me?”

Devi nods, with a nervous smile. “I would.”

Ben’s conflict washes away. “Ok, let’s do it.”

They head to the beach the next morning, getting the same instructor to teach them the basics for about a week in the time loop before they’re ready to go out.

Devi watches as Ben swims over to her on his board, looking disgruntled from another tumble.

“You almost had it that time,” Devi says.

“I was up for two seconds, which is two seconds longer than I’ve ever done before,” Ben says, wiping the salt water from his lips. “You’re not doing so bad either.”

“It’s more fun than I thought it would be,” Devi smiles, and wades her feet in the water on both sides of her board. “The few seconds where I stay up, I feel like everything’s clear.”

“Would you say as clear as water?” He waggles his brows.

She splashes him. “That was terrible.”

“Oh, you love it,” Ben taunts. “So, what made you want to surf so badly?”

“I don’t know, it’s a California thing. If I get good, I could bang hot surfers,” Devi shrugs.

Ben gives her that annoying knowing look.

“Fine, I wanted to because of my dad,” Devi relents. “He always tried me to go out and learn so we could go together, but I always said no because I was busy. I thought I had more time. I have a lot more time now. I wish he were here though, you know?”

“But he is here. I only met the guy once or twice, but I saw this fire in his eyes,” Ben says, pointing at her. “He’s a part of you because you have the same fire. That’s why I always liked competing with you. You always pushed me to be better to match that flame.”

Devi smiles. “I’d say over the years, we’ve created many wildfires together.”

“You make it sound like we destroy everything we touch.”

“Well, fires also lead to rebirth, to growth.”

He mimics, holding up a glass. “Here’s to growing.”

She snorts but finds herself clinking an imaginary glass against his. “To growing.”

Devi tips him off of his board a few seconds later.

She knows they talked about growing, but she’s not fully grown up yet.

As Ben pulls her into the water, with his arms around her, Devi hopes she never will.

* * *

Ben and Devi drive back home to Sherman Oaks early one morning to beat traffic. They spend most of the day relaxing in their own houses. They meet up at the community theatre a few hours later, just in time for Eleanor’s play rehearsal.

“Devi, what are you doing here?” Eleanor asks when she spots her walking through the doors of the theatre room.

“I came by to see you,” Devi answers.

Devi pulls her in for a hug but makes sure it’s not too tight. She’s made that mistake once before. It made it harder for Eleanor to breathe because her costume for the play includes a corset. When they part, Eleanor raises her brow at Ben, who’s hovering awkwardly behind them.

“Mind if I sit in too?” Ben asks her.

“Sure,” Eleanor answers, staring at him strangely. “Everyone’s taking a five, so feel free to have a cookie.”

Ben nods, heading over to the snack table. When he’s far enough away, Eleanor grabs Devi’s shoulders.

“Devi, what’s going on? Are you being kidnapped?”

“No,” Devi laughs.

“Then why is Ben with you?”

“We both didn’t feel like hanging around for all the wedding stuff, so we escaped and came here,” Devi explains.

“Together?”

“Yes, it’s not that weird.”

“Yes, it is.” Eleanor crosses her arms, piercing Devi with her stare. “You once got detention for refusing to share the hallway with him.”

“Yeah, but that was a long time ago.”

“That was last year!” 

“Well, it feels like a long time ago,” Devi mumbles. “Things are different now.”

Eleanor looks back at Ben and starts to smirk when she looks at Devi. “How different are we talking?”

“We’re just friends, no need to waggle that eyebrow.”

Ben appears, holding a plate of cookies and handing one to her. “Devi, I got you a snickerdoodle. I know they’re your favorite.”

Devi takes the cookie, blushing a little.

“How much has changed in the past few hours?” Eleanor asks, eyes glinting with intrigue.

“Not a lot,” Devi says around a mouthful of cinnamon.

She doesn’t look convinced as she walks towards the stage. Ben and Devi sit a few rows back in the audience seats.

“I’ve seen this scene thousands of times,” Devi whispers to Ben.

“How do you sit and watch it then?”

“I like seeing Eleanor,” she replies simply. “It is kind of sad to see the same issues they encounter in the scene every day, but it’s amazing to watch it come together every time.”

They watch for a while as they rehearse the scene from act two of _Much Ado About Nothing_. Ben mutters commentary about how he thinks Shakespeare’s writing is needlessly complicated and how most of the dialogue uses metaphors that don’t equate to modern life. She elbows him in the side after his fifth comment, and that does the trick to silence him.

“Cut,” the director abruptly yells. “It’s missing something.”

“It’s missing the tension, electric but playful,” Devi says in tandem with the director, causing Ben to snicker. 

“You guys are doing it too, doe-eyed,” the director continues, pointing at Eleanor and her scene partner. “Beatrice and Benedick’s banter still has an edge to it, but its softer than when they hated each other. Their interaction in this scene needs to be affectionately witty.”

Eleanor’s hand shoots up. “I have an idea.”

“Yes, Eleanor?”

“We’ve read this too many times. Maybe watching someone else perform the scene would help us see the subtext we’re missing.”

The director nods. “Who do you think should do it?”

“Ben and Devi.”

The two of them freeze as everyone’s eyes in the room turn around to them. Ben pauses mid-chew on his cookie, and Devi’s back goes ridged.

“She didn’t just say are names, did she?” Ben whispers to her.

Devi grits her teeth. “I believe she did.”

“That’s a good idea,” the director says, turning to them and waving them towards the stage. “You two, if you’re going to stay, you might as well be put you to use.”

Devi’s hands go to her purse. “Maybe we should go.”

“Yeah,” Ben nods, his eyes drifting towards the exit sign. “I don’t want to be put to use.”

“Don’t be shy, we’re all friends here,” Eleanor says, smirking not so innocently. She gets off the stage and hands Devi her script with a wink. “You’ll do great.”

Someone hands Ben a binder, and they’re ushered towards the stage. They enter from two separate directions, walking towards each other to meet in the middle.

The director sits back down. “Alright, from the top of act five, scene two, where Beatrice enters.”

They awkwardly start running through the scene. Devi doesn’t even have to look at the script, but she fidgets on stage as Ben stutters through his lines.

After a while, though, they finally get into the flow of the scene. They become these characters who are not too unlike themselves.

“And, I pray thee now, tell me for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?” Ben asks.

“For them all together, which maintained, so politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them,” Devi says, giving him a challenging look. “But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?”

Ben throws his head back. “Suffer love, a good epithet! I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will.”

She sighs with exaggeration and places her hand on his chest. “In spite of your heart, I think. Alas, poor heart!”

Ben looks down at her hand, the playful energy between them shifts a bit, turning into something more heated.

Devi can feel Ben’s heart beating under her hand. Ben watches her intently, making her breath hitch. She hears someone clearing her throat, reminding her that she has another line.

“If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours,” Devi says quietly, able to hear her heartbeat as she feels his. “For I will never love that which my friend hates.”

He places his hand on top of hers, entwining their fingers and pulling her closer. He looks down at the script and looks back at her, a hopeful glint in his eyes.

“Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably,” Ben says, his smiling at her tenderly. 

Devi can’t help but laugh in agreement and squeezes his hand in hers.

“See, that’s what I was talking about,” the director exclaims. “Now get off the stage, we got a lot more work to do.”

Devi and Ben flinch apart, walking off the stage. They sit back down in their seats to watch the rest of the rehearsal.

Devi wonders why she couldn’t have fallen for Ben before this time loop. Why does this have to be so complicated?

As she looks over at him, the answer to that question is clear.

It’s just like Ben said, they are too wise to woo peacefully.

* * *

A few weeks pass, and everything seems great—well, as perfect as it can be. Devi thinks that despite the pain of fighting with her mother, being distanced from her friends, things are starting to look up.

While Ben’s happy too, there’s this undercurrent of sadness whenever he sees his parents or thinks about how he can never go to college, or do all the things he wanted. Devi tries to make him feel better but finds any words of reassurance dying on her lips.

She also felt this sting of disappointment at the thought of never graduating, going on that tour of Europe after high school with Fabiola and Eleanor, and never becoming someone successful like she always wanted.

But none of their plans matter anymore. They just need to accept what they have.

Except, they both have a hard time accepting defeat like normal people. 

They spend days and days researching quantum physics and mechanics. They enlist in online courses and try to finish them as fast as they can. They call in professors and read every book they can find on the subject. They keep drawing blanks, but it does feel like they’re slowly getting somewhere.

But Devi, for some reason, doesn’t want them to get somewhere. While this place isn’t the best, what if the next day all the days after are even worse?

That’s why Devi suggests that they take a break for a while. When Ben’s biggest fear comes up in conversation, she makes them go to Santa Monica Pier.

“I can’t do it,” Ben says, shaking his head like a toddler being given broccoli.

“Ben, it’s a Ferris wheel. Four-year-olds can ride this.”

“Putting people in a metal seat that rotates them through the air sounds like a torture device,” Ben protests as Devi drags him farther down the pier. “It’s like we’re a rotisserie chicken being cooked.”

“Exactly! Who doesn’t like a rotisserie chicken?”

Ben glares at her.

“Ben, relax. I’m going to be there for you,” Devi says, grabbing his shoulders as they make it to the line for the ride. “It’ll be great.”

Ben looks like he wants to protest, but he nods. They wait until it’s their turn to get on and manage to get a cart to themselves. Ben crawls in and grabs one of the metal bars for dear life.

“Oh, god. Is it supposed to creak this much?” Ben asks as they start to go up.

“Yes, it’s not a full experience without sound effects.”

Ben’s hands are deathly pale as they grip the side of the cart. Devi reaches out, placing her hand on us and trying to entwine her fingers with his ones that are stiff as plywood.

As they rise farther to the top, Ben’s posture relaxes. He turns her palm around, so they’re holding hands properly. They thread together, and she holds his hand firmly, to tell him she’s here, and he’ll be ok.

Ben smiles shakily. She thinks his nerves have passed, but when they reach the utmost top and the ride halts, he freezes in fear.

“Why are we stopped?” Ben asks in a high voice. “Is it broken?”

“No, they usually give us three or so minutes in one spot to enjoy the view. We’re lucky to be at the prime spot.”

“The prime spot for death?”

“If we die, which we won’t,” she clarifies quickly when his eyes enlarge. “We’ll just wake up tomorrow. That’s how the whole time loop thing works.”

“I know, but I still don’t want to die here. This will traumatize me forever.”

“Don’t look at the view then. Just look at me.”

When his neck remains rigid, Devi tips his chin and moves his face towards her.

“Better?” 

“Yeah,” he says quietly as his eyes dilate. “Better.”

“You’re missing a great sunset. Every color imaginable is there,” Devi says when she looks in front of them. “It’s beautiful.”

“I can see it.”

Devi turns back at him and is confused when she sees that his eyes are still on her.

“The colors are reflecting onto you,” Ben explains. “The red and orange color in the sunset is beating down on your arm, and there’s some pink on your cheek. Also, the bit of sunlight that’s left in the sky is backlighting your hair.”

Devi feels as if she’s a cartoon character, and the outline of her heart can be seen beating underneath her skin.

“You’re a better canvas for the sunset than any skyline,” he whispers.

Devi always has the right words to say to Ben. But for the first time, he’s rendered her speechless.

He begins to lean forward, pressing his lips to her arm. The kisses are light as they trail up to her shoulder. Ben also starts to runs his hands through the waves of her hair.

She realizes what he’s doing, appreciating the parts of the canvas.

Her eyes drift close, and he kisses her temple gently. Devi feels herself shiver as he kisses her cheek, which is probably pinker than the sunset now. She melts into his touch as he kisses the corner of her mouth, lingering there.

When Ben eventually pulls back, Devi immediately misses the proximity. She pulls on his collar gently, and their lips crash together.

It starts slow, like their first kisses in loops before joining her did, like they’re testing the waters.

He pulls away after a few seconds. His features etched with nervousness as he searches for Devi's reaction. She doesn’t let that worried look stay there for long, as she cups his cheeks and kisses him again.

For the first time, her kiss with him feels more like a continuation than a beginning.

The cart they’re on suddenly starts moving again, causing them to break apart.

By the time that they make it to the bottom, they walk together without saying a word. As they make it down the boardwalk, she breaks the silence.

“I got to say, that wasn’t the usual Ferris wheel ride experience I was telling you about,” Devi says awkwardly.

Only three seconds of silence pass before she sees Ben’s shoulders relax, and they both burst out laughing.

After a few moments, he bumps against her side. “Thank you for calming me down.”

“It’s the least I could do,” Devi shrugs, hugging her arms to help warm her up as the sun has now disappeared completely. “Plus, you puking on my shoes would make the walk back so uncomfortable.”

Ben stops in the middle of the boardwalk, his face twisted up unpleasantly when he looks at her.

“I’m sorry I started kissing you like that.”

Devi smiles, interlocking her arm with his. “I’m not.”

“Oh, good,” he sighs in relief, the corners of his lips starting to tilt up. “Because I’m not all that sorry.”

She swats at his chest, but he catches her hand, pulling her towards him. Devi doesn’t care who is watching as they kiss in the middle of the pier.

* * *

Devi leans forward, her hands resting on her knees as she tries to gather her breath.

“Alright, I think this hike is done,” Devi says to Ben, who’s a few steps in front of her.

“David, this is the last incline. We’re almost there.”

“Why don’t we just watch a YouTube video of the view at the top?” She pulls out her phone and raises it above her, trying to get a bar of service. “The Internet exists so that we don’t have to go out and do things for ourselves.”

Ben walks back towards her and snatches her phone from her hand and pockets it.

"Hey!"

“You’re the one who said you always wanted to hike,” Ben points out.

She crosses her arms. “I was young and innocent then, without feeling how much your legs could ache from the aforementioned hike.”

“Come on,” Ben urges, bobbing his head towards the trail ahead. “You can do this.”

“You go up,” Devi says, sitting down on the ground. “I’ll be here waiting for when you’re done.”

Ben pulls her back up. “No, we’re in this together.”

“But my body’s not in it right now,” Devi whines, not caring how childish she sounds.

Ben looks like he’s fighting a smile before he turns his back to her. “Get on my back, I’ll carry you.”

“You’re sweating as much as you did during the capture the flag tournament in fifth grade. There’s no way you’ll make it,” Devi huffs.

“Devi, I wouldn’t ever drop you.”

He’s giving her that puppy-eyed look that she can’t resist, causing her to relent and get on his back. He grips onto her legs as she loops her arms around his neck.

“Can you tell me, ‘you better hold on tight spider monkey?’” Devi asks, quoting a movie so bad it’s good.

He squints. “Why would you want to be compared to a spider monkey?”

She rolls her eyes. “Forget it.”

Devi finds her face drifting to rest on his shoulder as he walks them up the hill. She thinks when she does, his paces become slower.

They finally make it to the top of the peak after a few minutes. Devi hops off of Ben’s back, and when she looks at the view in front of them, she’s completely awestruck.

Ben follows her gaze. “I told you so.”

“Way to be mature,” she says sarcastically, nudging his shoulder. “But you did, so thanks.”

“It was all worth it,” Ben says, gesturing in front of them. “Look at that view.”

The perfect blue of the sky blends into the ocean, making Devi unsure where the sky begins and the sea stops. The way they fit together creates an astounding harmony.

She turns towards Ben, his expression serene as he observes the view. The wind is blowing his hair, and his smile hangs like a masterpiece on his cheeks. The most beautiful thing of all is how his eyes look like the view, endless blue with an undefinable depth.

Ben catches her looking at him, those blue eyes locking with hers. He leans forward, pressing a soft but intense kiss to her lips.

When they break apart, he throws his arm over her shoulder and pulls her close. Devi leans into him, enraptured by the way her feelings for him feel infinite.

* * *

One day, they stay in the spare hotel room, lying on the bed and watching TV. Devi’s legs are tangled with his as her head rests on his chest. Ben’s arms are around her shoulder, so he can lean in close and mumble sarcastic comments in her ear.

“I wish we could stay here, and wake up in the same bed,” Ben mutters into her neck, his eyes drifting close as Dumbledore’s army raises their wands into the air because it’s always _Harry Potter_ weekend in this loop and out of it.

“I do too. I feel so comfortable right now,” Devi says, snuggling into his side. “I forgot how much I could feel after being in this time loop for so long. But since you came into it, it’s like I started to wake up. It’s super annoying how much I feel for you, honestly.”

“It’s just as annoying loving you."

Devi sits up, so her head rests against the bed frame. But Ben continues watches the television screen unfazed, taking a bite of the licorice they got from the hotel vending machine.

“What did you say?” Devi asks.

Ben turns his head to her, his face blank before a flash of embarrassment crosses over his face.

“I—shit, that just slipped out,” Ben stutters, his hands going up to cover his face. “I overthink everything, but apparently, admitting that I love you is the easiest thing not to overanalyze. That makes you so much more annoying.”

Devi grins and pulls his hands away from his face.

“Do you know what’s annoying? I found myself wanting to talk to you every single day of the loop. For five seconds or five hours,” Devi admits. “Out of everything in this that’s eternally repetitive, being with you is endlessly revivifying.”

Ben’s expression softens, and his arms find their way around her waist. Devi kisses his cheek before laying back down beside him as they stare up at the ceiling.

“Someone being the only person for you is scientifically improbable,” Ben suddenly says.

Devi props her head on her elbow to look at him. Ben has that look like he gets before he starts an argument, ready to fire off everything he can to prove his point.

“If your soulmate is in your age group, you have about half a billion potential candidates from all over the world. You’ll only become acquainted with around 50,000 of them, for five minutes or the rest of your life,” Ben explains. “But you’re looking for the one out of half a billion. So, your chances of actually meeting them are one lifetime out of 10,000.”

“We have a lot of lifetimes in here, but the people we’re stuck within the time loop make it even more improbable that one of them is our destined person,” Devi says, following his reasoning.

“Exactly,” Ben nods, finally meeting her eyes with such firm resolve. “But even before this loop, you were my person. I didn’t know it then, but I do now. I don’t need statistics or anything to tell me what I feel. You’re my person in almost every way imaginable.”

Devi wants to mock him for going on this whole statistical and scientific rant only to discard both in his conclusion. But she can’t insult him. Despite all the flaws in his reasoning, Devi knows she feels the same way.

“Ben,” Devi says slowly. “That was the cheesiest and stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Then, why are you crying?” Ben asks, the corners of his lips rising.

She rubs at her eyes. “Because your stupidity is so sad.”

Ben laughs and holds his arms out. “Get over here.”

Ben wraps his arms around her, and she holds on, feeling the comfort of knowing that neither of them intends to let go.

“You’re my person too,” Devi whispers, kissing his hands that she holds close to her chest.

“I know, David. I know.”

“How do you know that? How do you just know me?”

“It comes with being someone’s person,” Ben says, his voice buzzing against her skin. “Get used to it. We’ve got a lot of days to live here.”

Devi’s eyes drift closed. “That used to be the worst part, but now, it doesn’t seem so bad.”

* * *

Ben has a couple of bad days.

And by bad, she means horrendous.

He breaks his leg when he and Devi play the floor is lava. A few days later, he gets roped into giving a speech by accident and ends up going all existential. Another day when they go out to a restaurant, he ends up getting sick with food poisoning.

Ben also begins to get fed up with his parents and the whole wedding. She wasn’t there for the blowout fight with his parents, but apparently, it had been a big one. Ben had aired out every grievance to them. He’d told her that after an hour of arguing, they confessed that they never wanted to be parents. They said to him that they loved him, but parenting was not something that came easily to them.

Devi had held him that whole night, and they woke up in separate beds when they day reset. His parents acted like nothing had happened the next day, because to them, yesterday didn’t exist. 

Ben told her that he wanted to get away today, so they went for a drive in his car. But when he said he wanted to get away, Devi didn’t think it would be at this fast of a speed.

“Ben, what the hell are you doing?” Devi shouts. “You’ve never driven this fast.” 

“Nothing matters,” Ben responds. “So, why does it matter how fast we drive?”

“It matters if we crash and die!”

“It’s like you always say, we’ll just wake back up and live this day again,” Ben shrugs.

“But it’ll feel really real to the people in front of us if you crash into them.”

Ben’s anger falters as he looks at the cars ahead of them, looking exhausted instead.

“I’m sorry,” he says, taking a few deep breaths as they slow down. “I’m just sick of this day.”

“I am too,” Devi says lowly. She leans over, touching his hand on the wheel. “But we have each other, that’s something, right?”

“I didn’t mean to make you think I’m tired of you—I love you, and each day I’ve spent with you here.” Ben smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “But don’t you want more days?”

“Of course, I do. But there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Yes, there is,” Ben insists. “We talk theoretically about how to escape the time loop, but we’ve never test anything.”

Devi sighs. “What is this all about? I know you’ve had a few bad days, but there’s plenty more to make up for them.”

“Yeah, plenty more days to wake up and remembering what I did,” he grumbles quietly.

Devi turns to him, the way he acted each day before he got stuck in here, coming to her mind. She knew he’d always seemed troubled, but she’d just thought it was from his parents putting all of the wedding tasks on him and getting no thanks. But clearly, there was more to it.

“What did you do?”

“Something really stupid,” is all Ben says to explain. “I can’t ever move forward from it if I don’t escape this day.”

“You just have to remember this day doesn’t matter, it helps relieve the guilt.”

“But what we do should matter, even if it all resets the next day,” Ben urges. “How can we face ourselves every day if we act like the things we do to other people don’t matter?”

Devi opens her mouth but snaps it closed, her brow furrowing at him.

Ben exhales. “Can we please just start testing some of our theories?”

Devi looks away from him, out the passenger side window with a frown. “No.”

“What are you so afraid of?” Ben asks. “If we’re wrong, it will probably just reset.”

“We’re not talking about this,” she says thinly through her teeth.

Ben pulls over to the side of the road. They sit in silence for a while, before Ben completely turns off the engine and looks at her.

“Devi, I know it’s scary, but what’s the alternative?” he asks softly. “Live here forever without giving it our all to get out?”

Devi stays looking out the window, chewing on her thumbnail.

“You’re not even going to say anything?” When she remains silent, he groans and rubs a hand over his eyes. “I would have never kissed you on the Ferris wheel if I’d have known you’d be this stubborn.”

“Oh please, we’ve kissed hundreds of times before the Ferris wheel,” Devi says under her breath.

Ben freezes. “What?”

Devi’s eyes widen when she looks at him, realizing the confession she just let slip out.

“Nothing,” she says urgently. “Please, forget it.”

“No,” Ben says, squaring his shoulders. “What did you mean by that?”

Devi ducks her head, pulling at a thread on her shirt. “We have kissed before, a lot. The night you fell into the sandpit wasn’t the first.”

“But you said—.”

“I lied,” Devi interrupts. “I just wanted a fresh start with you. Usually, making a speech in your place or getting a band was all it took.”

Ben shakes his head in disbelief. There are too many emotions on his face to read at once. Devi wants to take it back or fix this, but she doesn’t know how.

After a few more seconds, Ben unbuckles his seat belt.

He opens the car door. “I’m getting out of this day.”

“Ben—.”

Before she can stop him, he gets out of the car, running down the road and disappearing as he turns a corner.

* * *

Weeks pass with no sign of Ben. The silence is deafening. Devi looks for him everywhere, but it’s as if he was never here in the first place.

She gets so desperate to distract herself that she even visits Shira one day to mend fences. It turns out after the rock incident, Shira realized that getting angry at Devi wasn’t helping anything. Shira was now happy with her family. She told Devi that she’s trying to appreciate her life instead of always wanting more.

Devi wishes she could not want more, but she does.

One night, Devi goes to Ben’s room even though she knows he won’t be there. 

She sits on his bed, smelling the scent of orange blossoms and a hint of lavender. When she looks over to his bedside table, she sees a list of names crossed out. Devi picks it up, reading the names of all of the clients Ben had to convince to come each day. She also sees the number for the band that got canceled.

That’s when it all comes together in her mind.

The mix up of the date of the wedding to the clients and band had never been an accident. Ben had done it intentionally. He must’ve sent them invitations with different dates, or called them before today and gave them the wrong information. 

That’s why he felt so guilty to make everything perfect. Ben changed the dates so that the wedding would be more about family than about work.

But then, Ben must’ve realized how upset his parents would be, and managed to get all of their numbers. He probably crossed out their names once he re-invited them by telling them the correct day and time of the wedding. 

He did all of it because he wanted to get his parents to notice him. 

But Devi knew from watching the day play out many times that they never noticed him. At least, not in the way he wanted them to. Even when Ben did get the clients and a band to come, his parents still found a way to ignore him. They also made him give a speech to save face.

Devi thinks about yelling at his parents for telling them how great Ben is, but she doesn’t. What got her into this whole mess was pretending the way you treated people doesn’t matter when they forget.

* * *

She spends one morning lying on the bed in her hotel room when Ben storms in.

She sits up so fast that she bumps her head on the headboard. “Ben?”

He sits on the edge of the bed, grinning ear to ear, the complete opposite look he had the last time she saw him. “I figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“Do you remember that one time when you talked about the sandpit trapping us in a box of energy?”

Devi nods, still dazed by Ben’s appearance.

“I’ve been researching every day since I last saw you, and I’ve been further studying your theory,” Ben says. “If we escape the box in the 3.2 seconds it takes to travel through the loop itself, we can escape this day. We do this by blowing ourselves and the sandpit during that window. If we detonate the C-4 at the right moment, it will propel us out.”

Devi raises a brow with a frown. “Out to where?”

“I don’t know,” Ben confesses uneasily. “But hopefully it'll take us to tomorrow. A few days ago, I tested it on that turtle we always see on the beach. He hasn’t been there ever since.”

“Are you sure he’s not in the ocean or something?”

“Yes, I mapped his patterns every day, and they were always the same. But since I tested it on him, he’s nowhere to be found.”

Devi works over his hypothesis in her head. Her mind whirls as she realizes that his plan might work.

But then, it hits her that Ben is indeed here, in front of her, and she has a chance to say everything she’d wanted to say since he disappeared.

“Ben, I’m so sorry for everything. I shouldn’t have lied, it was wrong,” Devi says, feeling a lump forming in her throat. “I thought telling you about the other versions would make me lose you. It was selfish.”

“I wish you would’ve told me, but I understand why you didn’t,” Ben murmurs, placing a hand on top of hers. “I don’t know if what happened between us would’ve happened if I knew everything from the past loops. I wouldn’t trade a day—or more like the multiple versions we’ve had of this day together for anything.”

Devi sighs in relief and can’t help it any longer and pulls him into a hug. He grips her tightly, his hands secure around her waist as she buries her head in his neck.

“I’m the one who should apologize to you,” Ben adds, pulling back slightly so she can see the conflicted look on his face. “I’ve been this biggest liar through of all of this.”

“It’s ok.”

“No, you don’t know—.”

“Ben, I do know,” Devi interrupts softly. “I found the guest list with numbers crossed out. I know you were the one who sent your dad’s clients the wrong date for the wedding.”

He places his head into his hands. “My dad lost accounts because of me. I just wanted this to be more than some stunt. And then I tried to fix it when I realized it was a mistake. I tried to call everyone to get them to come. God, I’m such a terrible person.”

Devi runs a hand across his cheek. “No, you’re not. What you did was wrong, but wanting your parents to love you isn’t.”

“I’m sorry I disappeared on you without saying anything.”

Devi leans forward, placing her head on his shoulder. “I understand, I’m just glad your back.”

Ben stills a little. “But, I’m going to test the theory tonight.”

“You can’t. You don’t know where it’ll shoot you out. You could wake up tomorrow, or fifty years from now, or you could die!”

“But, I have to take this chance,” Ben says. “We have to take this chance. It may be our only shot out of here.”

Devi bites her lip. “But what if I don’t want to be out of here?”

Ben looks up in surprise, his eyebrows furrowing. “You want to stay?”

“No, but it’s the safe alternative,” Devi stands up and plants her feet in front of where he sits on the bed. “We can be happy here together. We’ve been happy the past few months, right?”

“Yes, but happy in a bubble,” Ben adds, standing up and walking towards her. “David, the whole world is outside of here. It’s scary, but it’s real. We can face it together.”

Devi feels herself shaking, stepping away from him with trembling feet.

“Maybe I don’t want to go.”

Ben frowns, but his eyes are soft, the blue in them reminding her of the water in the eye of a hurricane. Calm and clear, knowing what he wants despite the storm going on around him.

“I’m going to try to live this day the best I can. Around 11:38, I’m going to detonate the C-4 in the pit,” Ben says, taking a step back but making it look like stepping away from her is as hard as trudging through molasses. “I hope whatever you decide makes you happy.”

Devi sees him walk out the door, and somehow, she feels more alone than she ever has before.

* * *

She’s sitting at the wedding reception, aimlessly swirling her glass of sparkling cider in her flute glass when they call Ben up to the stage.

It’s been hard watching him all day, smiling at the ceremony, and pulling everything together for the wedding, knowing it’ll be the last time she ever sees him. Devi feels like a chandelier dangling by one string, on the precipice of falling and shattering into pieces any time now.

Ben grabs the microphone, clearing his throat, which echoes through the room. He waits for the room to quiet before speaking.

“In case you didn’t know, I’m the son of the groom and bride,” Ben says, gesturing at his parents behind him. “They brought us all here today to promise that they still love each other.”

He walks towards the center of the stage, twirling the microphone wire in his hands.

“Still loving someone despite things I think is important. Despite knowing that Dad makes annoying sounds when he eats, or that Mom likes the house to be 69 degrees at night which makes it freezing, they still love each other.”

She sees him take a deep breath before turning towards his parents.

“You guys have given me opportunities and things a lot of people don’t readily have access to, so I’m thankful for that. But there are things I wish I had with you guys, like more time spent together.” 

Devi has never seen his parents look intently at Ben before, like they care what he has to say. She can’t help but smile a bit, trying to memorize how Ben’s lips twist into a broad smile.

“But today, I’m here to confess the same thing you guys did,” Ben continues. “That despite any problem, despite any annoyance, I love you guys.”

His mother looks teary-eyed, and his father gives him a thankful nod.

Ben turns back around towards the audience. He looks around until his eyes meet Devi’s. She feels her chest rise and fall, but as he looks at her, she feels like she’s not breathing.

There at the event horizon. There’s only Ben and Devi in the room, time and space around them start to lose meaning.

“I found something great today, in this day that feels like many days in one,” Ben says directly to her.

Devi laughs, knowing just as well as him that it has been too many days in one to count. He grips the microphone tighter, stepping to the edge of the stage.

“No matter what happens tomorrow, or the day after that, I will still love you,” Ben says softly.

She nods, feeling a tear falling down her cheek.

Ben struggles to look away from her to break this moment that will be there last. However, he eventually does, and picks up a glass and raises it in the air.

“Cheers,” Ben says, smiling as everyone raises a glass with him.

After everyone is done applauding, he goes over to his parents and hugs them. He exists the stage not too long after and disappears from view.

Devi begins taking in shaky breaths in and out. Her mother interrupts her pre-breakdown by returning to the table.

“If I knew old men would be coming up to me, asking me to check moles in precautious places, I would have never become a doctor,” her mother huffs.

“Yes, you would have,” Devi says because she’s said that on previous versions of this night.

“You’re right. I still would have,” Nalini says, surveying her daughter with surprise. “Sit up, that’s bad manners.”

“Everything I do is wrong to you, so what’s by posture matter?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you meant. It’s what you always meant,” Devi mutters bitterly. “When I was late to the beach to spread dad’s ashes, you asked me why I couldn’t do one thing right.”

Nalini sighs. “I didn’t mean that. I was just emotional. It was a lot to process.”

“You don’t think it was a lot to process for me?” Devi snaps, sitting up in her chair. “Did you ever think that’s why I was late, that I was afraid to say goodbye?”

Devi flushes at her outburst. While they’d had this fight in a million different ways, Devi had never admitted that to her before. Devi didn’t want to confess that she was so afraid of letting her dad go that she let him down.

Her mother cups Devi’s cheeks tenderly, forcing Devi to meet her eyes.

“I didn’t think of that,” her mother confesses. “I’m sorry. I think we both have been focused on our own grief that we don’t try to understand the other persons.”

“I didn’t mean what I said either, about how I wished you were dead instead of dad,” Devi says, frowning. “I’m so sorry.”

Nalini pulls her into a hug, cradling her head. “I’m so proud to have you as a daughter. I hope you know that.”

“You shouldn’t be. I’m so afraid of ruining what I love, that I let myself lose it,” Devi says quietly. “I didn’t even tell him I loved him. He knows, but I never actually said the words.”

Nalini scans Devi curiously. “I’m sure you can get him back.”

“What I’ve lost is going to be gone for good at 11:38 tonight.”

“Well, it’s 11:23,” Nalini says, looking down at her watch. “You still have time.”

Devi smiles, her mother’s words causing a revelation.

She jumps up, running out of the ballroom without explaining herself.

When she finally makes it to the beach, she sees Ben approaching the pit, lugging something on his shoulder.

“Ben, wait,” Devi yells from behind him.

He stops, turning around and giving her a sad smile.

“David, I can’t stay here. I need to go onto the next day.”

“That’s not what I was going to say,” Devi says, lunging forward and grabbing his arm before he can turn around. “Please, let me explain.”

Ben looks at the pit, then at his watch, then back at her with a shaky breath.

“Ok,” Ben sighs. “You’ve got one sentence.”

“I love you.”

Ben’s eyes widen, looking at her in awe. But then, his eyes jump back to the sandpit.

“I love you, comma!” she adds urgently, continuing her one sentence with punctuation. “You’re my favorite person, which is crazy because we spent most of our lives at each other’s throats. Uh, semicolon. But getting stuck in a time loop is also crazy, so that word is relative, ampersand. My life is better with you in it, dot dot dot.”

“Ellipsis,” Ben interrupts. 

“Yes, ellipsis,” Devi says with a grin. “So, I’d rather take this chance to spend tomorrow with you or die next to you if this doesn’t work, emphatic period.”

“There were a lot of grammar errors in that sentence,” Ben says, smiling gently. “Why not end with an exclamation point instead?”

She rolls her eyes. “People use exclamation points too much. They start to lose their meaning. I’m sick of them.”

Ben steps forward, nervously rubbing his neck. “What if you get sick of me in real life?”

“I am sick of you, but in the best way. I know the good parts and the bad parts of you, but I still love you,” Devi says, raising her hand to his cheek. “Look, I don’t need you, but I chose you.”

Ben leans his forehead against her, and she melts against his touch.

“Being with you does make things a lot less mundane,” Ben reasons with a slight smirk.

“So, what do you say?” Devi asks.

“I say I love you too, so much. I was afraid of getting to the next day and it not being worth it without you there.” Ben says. He tugs her hand, walking them towards the pit. “So, come with me, so we can keep choosing each other every day.”

They approach the sandpit, staring at the red light while holding hands.

“So, where do you think we should go on our first date when we don’t blow up and die?” Devi asks.

“Maybe to a museum, or we could have a library date because school starts next week,” Ben says giddily. “Or, there’s this movie festival showing foreign films in a couple of days.”

Devi grins. “All that sounds super nerdy.”

“You’re mom’s super nerdy.”

She stuffs her face into her hands. “Oh god, you’re so lame.”

“Too late to back out now,” Ben says.

She smiles as Ben pulls her in for a kiss.

When they fall into the pit, and Ben detonates the C-4, Devi swears she sees the sunrise.

* * *

In the hotel lobby the next day, they have their luggage over their shoulders as they wait for Devi’s mom to check out.

“I can’t believe it,” Ben says, grabbing a sheet of paper he picked up from a nearby desk. “This whole time, I never knew we could claim a free night of room service if we referred someone to stay at the hotel.”

“I know the chefs of the hotel too well and their cleaning habits, we were right not to take up the deal.”

Nalini comes over to them and tells them that she’s going to pull up the car.

Ben’s parents already left for Maui without saying goodbye, so Devi convinced her mom to give him a ride home. She was a bit confused as to why she would care about Ben when she’d only seen Devi despise him her entire life.

But as Ben came over, looping an arm through Devi’s, Nalini raised a brow with thin lips. Devi could tell she guessed her running off last night had something to do with Ben, and the pointed look she gave her was a “we’ll talk about this later” before she went up to the front desk.

But, if they could get through a freaking time loop together, they can face her mother’s disapproval of them dating.

“So, what now?” Devi asks.

“I don’t know,” Ben shrugs. “Go to school, see friends, check-in on Harvey, my hermit crab. I left him with my neighbor.”

“You have a hermit crab?” Devi exclaims. “How did I never know this?”

“You never asked.”

“It’s my fault that I never asked the most common question you can ask a person if they have a hermit crab?” she scoffs.

They walk out of the hotel, towards Nalini’s car that just pulled up. Devi gets inside, scooting over so Ben can get in next to her.

“You can meet Harvey tomorrow when we get home,” Ben says, opening the door for her.

As they drive away from the hotel, and Ben’s hand finds her between the two seats, Devi feels the weight of an infinite number of days lifted off her shoulders.

“Yeah,” Devi smiles. “Tomorrow.”


End file.
